Abstract:
Honorable Dignitaries on the Dias, Great academicians, Learned participants, Ladies and
Gentlemen.
The University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka is known for its academic excellence all over the
world. I appreciate the efforts taken by the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce
University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka for conducting an International Conference on Contemporary
Management during March 14-15, 2014. The conference will address on various sub
themes of contemporary management and also focus on empowering people towards
sustainable development. My address would cover certain issues relating to the theme of
the conference in general and very particularly on empowering people to think creatively
and working towards sustainable development.
In creativity research, terms such as fluency, flexibility and originality are used to
describe different aspects of creative thinking. Fluency is the number of thoughts or ideas
generated. Flexibility is the number of different perspectives or fields your ideas come from.
Creativity is defined as the act of bringing into existence something which did not exist
before, and empowerment is defined as an individual's belief in his/her ability to exercise
choice.
Facilitating creative collaboration is one of the most important management roles
in leading a creative environment. In particular, empowering a team with critical and
creative thinking facilitates innovation effort that draws out new exciting ideas from the
team. Empowerment refers to increasing the economic, political, social, educational,
gender, or spiritual strength of individuals and communities. More empowered teams are
also more productive and proactive than less empowered teams and have higher levels of
customer service, job satisfaction, and organizational and team commitment.
