Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Creative Problem Solving training (CPS) on R&D performance. One hundred and six R&D workers of a large government-owned manufacturing company in Taiwan participated in the study. Seventy-one of them were divided into three groups and received 12 hours of CPS training and two 3-hours follow-ups over one-year period in a time-series design. The remaining 35 subjects serve as the control. All subjects were administered the Circle Test of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators before and after the CPS training. R&D performance in terms of averaged numbers of annual research reports, technical services, and published papers and performance rating three years before the CPS and one year after the CPS training were compared. Result showed that subject in all experimental groups showed higher fluency, flexibility, and originality, in thinking, and become more extroverted, intuitive in cognitive type after training. In terms of R&D performance, experimental groups outperformed the control group in performance rating number of annual reports, number of technical services, and number of co-authored published papers. The time lag between the CPS and the posttest was also a factor contribution to the training effects.