Divergent Thinking – It’s Time to Change the Box!

The fast paced environment with ever evolving technology necessitates an education system facilitating creativity, innovation and critical thinking. The Indian management education system needs to make rigorous efforts to create a nation of thinkers capable of changing the box; rather than thinking out of the box. We need to move towards an approach wherein students‟ autonomous learning and self expression is put in front. This self – directed and open – ended learning will inculcate „divergent thinking‟ among the students; equipping them with higher level of potential to handle the uncertainties enveloping any situation. Divergent thinkers are capable of identifying gaps and inconsistencies in life, and they often derive contentment by exploring or filling those gaps by applying their intelligence (Maxwell, 2009). As educators we should present conditions where solutions are not apparently visible, where students are encouraged to search for order in a seemingly chaotic situation. Simply „telling‟ will not work; we need to make the students capable of finding clarity amidst all the obstacles of confusion and complexity. Learning as a productive process should produce stages of disequilibrium brought on by novel ideas to foster and cultivate divergent thinking among the students. Divergent thinking will empower the students to come up with creative ideas or solutions and augment their problem – solving skills. Management teaching strategies that hone divergent thinking skills not only makes the classroom environment vibrant but also helps the students in developing an understanding and appreciating differences in various approaches directed towards solving a problem. With this background, the objective of our present work is to promote an approach which encourages divergent thinking among the students in management educational institutes. Deliberation on the concept and benefits of divergent thinking will lead to identifying various means/methods of cultivating and strengthening divergent thinking skills among the budding managers of tomorrow. Design / Methodology / Approach - Through different keywords, relevant research papers on Google scholar were taken for the study. In addition, various databases like Questia on – line library, EBSCO Host, Emerald Management, Elseiver, etc were selected for conducting the present exploratory work. Originality / Value - The findings of the study will offer guidance to the management institutes towards developing a teaching pedagogy which encourages divergent thinking among the students; thus preparing them as the backbone of innovation in our economy. The outlined management teaching strategies to hone divergent thinking skills among students will make the classroom environment vibrant and will also help them in developing an understanding and appreciating differences in various approaches directed towards solving a problem.