Effect of TRIZ on enhancing employees’ creativity and innovation

Purpose Regarding the important roles of creativity and innovation for accomplishing innovative missions in aerospace industries, this study aims to explore the impact of a three-month TRIZ (an engineering problem-solving toolkit) training workshop on enhancing three important creativity- and innovation-related characteristics of employees in Iran aerospace industries. Design/methodology/approach A three-month TRIZ educational program was run. Three standard questionnaires were used for assessing creative thinking (CT), need for cognition (NFC) and interest in work innovation (IWI). From different scientific sectors of aerospace industries, 290 participants took part in completing pre- and post-test questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed by the related statistical methods (the sign test, correlation analysis and descriptive statistics). Findings The results indicate that the TRIZ training workshop directly enhanced CT, NFC and IWI scores, and that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between these characteristics. Also, the results of the correlation analysis of these variables and the demographic features of the participants shed light on interesting facts that can be used for decision makers and researchers of aerospace industries. Research limitations/implications This study opens a new way for further research in the analysis of the impact of problem-solving techniques on improving creativity and innovation in aerospace and other high-tech industries. Originality/value This paper may be of high value to researchers in creativity and innovation fields in the high-tech industries, including the aerospace industry. This study further facilitates decision-making by enhancing inventive problem solving in these industries. It gives valuable information and guidelines that hopefully will help managers to consider the important issues during TRIZ toolkit establishment in their organizations.