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the impact of the macro-environment is more felt by famous artists or groups of artists, these
factors create a background of the favourable or unfavourable environment for all people.
This background does not depend on their activities and either stimulates or blocks their
creativity. The biggest impact on human creativity, however, is made by a close environment,
the so-called micro-environment (family, school, work).
The goal of this article is review scientific literature and to analyse creativity-friendly
organisational environment in the context of knowledge potential. To achieve this goal, the
following objectives were set:
analysing the concept of knowledge potential and the importance of creativity in the
structure of knowledge potential;
reviewing scientific literature critically from the perspective of creativity concept and
clarifying the definition of creativity;
clearing up characteristics of the organisational environment, important for the
development of creativity;
conducting a research in small enterprises to determine the suitability of the
environment for creativity;
To this end, the article employs methods of scientific literature analysis, abstraction,
synthesis, and questionnaire survey.
The importance of creativity in the structure of knowledge potential
Knowledge as the object of investigation goes back to the times of Socrates (469–399 B.C.),
Plato (427–347 B.C.) and Aristotle (384–322 B.C.). Kriščiūnas and Daugėlienė (2006) point out
Plato’s characteristics of knowledge, explaining the philosopher’s definition of knowledge:
knowledge must be accurate and true; a man cannot know and not know at the same time;
symbols without understanding cannot be treated as knowledge; knowledge is created for the
sake of other knowledge.
The modern perception of knowledge is associated with works of Drucker, Peter (1969), Bell
(1973), Toffler (1980), Ackoff (1989), Argyris (1993), Nonaka, Takeuchi (1995) and other
scientists, many of whom have a similar perception and definition of knowledge
(Skačkauskienė, Katinienė, 2015). The concept of knowledge is wide and covers a variety of
fields (philosophy, mathematics, management, mechanics, architecture, etc.). Knowledge has
many different purposes (domestic, learning, professional development) (Bivainis, Morkvėnas,
2008).
Knowledge is based on data and information. Data processing creates information, and
information processing gives knowledge (Figure 1). Knowledge used by a person requires data
which are transformed into information (data are input and information is output) and have a
greater value in solving problems, formulating, evaluating, adopting and implementing
decisions (Raudeliūnienė, Račinskaja, 2014).
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