95
tions of other good companies,” Mr Lu says. He attributes this to political con- siderations that inhibit thinking outside of the box. Mr Lu points to the education sys-
tem as one of the constraints on creative thinking in Macau. He calls for teach- ers to give students more projects and to encourage them to be creative instead of always resorting to book learning. “Then, when they start working,
they
can automatically provide new ideas to the employer,” he says.
Attitude problem Mr Lu also stresses that local companies do not demand creativity in the work- place that much. “Employers usually expect more senior staff to possess such a quality,” he says. If companies are re- ally looking for creative types, they are likely to look for them abroad. The Asian Development Bank
notes: “Creativity ourishes in organi- sations that support open ideas: these organizations create environments that inspire personnel and maintain innova- tive workplaces.” Macau’s low unemployment rate,
coupled with thousands of job open- ings, adds to the city’s low levels of cre- ativity, Mr Lu says. Workers do not feel the need to prove they can add value. “If they are unhappy in a company, it’s easy to have good options and move,” he says. Queenie Zhu, managing director of
MyJobs Macau, a human resources com- pany, has a brighter view. “It’s dif cult to label local workers as non-competi- tive when compared to overseas work- ers,” she says. Ms Zhu believes that in an economy
tional exposure. It may be because of the economic and business environment,” he says. Bosses in Hong Kong promote creativity and expect employees to come up with new ideas to boost business, Mr Lu states. “There is never a bad idea. Any idea is very valuable for the em- ployer, especially when they are consid- ering who to promote.” In the mainland, it is different.
“Workers are clever: they are very crea- tive but apply creativity in copying other people’s things. Many brands, when starting, always copy designs and func-
where hospitality in particular and the service sector in general is dominant, creativity is already an important part of work. “To serve a customer better, we have to think of ways to satisfy him or her,” she says. Ms Zhu links creativity to a good at-
titude. She says the dif culty in nding employees with a good attitude is one of the main complaints of employers in Macau. Bosses say workers are not eager to show how much they are worth since they can easily change jobs.
Chapter and verse “Creativity will come, if you are sincere about solving the problem,” Ms Zhu says. She says high schools need to do more to encourage creativity in students,
by scrapping old teaching methods
based solely on rote learning. In a written reply to Macau Busi-
ness, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau denied local teaching methods are out of date. The bureau says it is promoting creative thinking in schools through curriculum reform, teacher training and vocational programmes. Rui Martins, vice-rector for research
at the University of Macau, rejects the idea that institutions of higher education fail to promote creativity enough. “When I arrived at the university, 20
years ago, students were used to memo- rising the book. I introduced different bibliographic references to prevent them from memorising. They will not memo- rise four or ve books,” he says. “Since we have a diversi ed teach-
ing body, from different parts of the world, what is usually taught is, in our case, pretty diversi ed,” Mr Martins says. Also, several student exchange pro- grammes bring students to Macau from as far away as Europe and Africa, and send local students abroad. Diversity, he says, stimulates creative thinking. The director of the Gaming Teach-
ing and Research Centre at the Macau Polytechnic Institute, Hester Cheang Mio Han, also believes institutions of tertiary education promote creativ- ity. She says the Polytechnic Institute not only includes a variety of subjects in its programmes but also asks stu- dents to complete an original thesis or project before graduating. “Students are required to develop their critical think- ing,” she says.
Unexpected expected Ms Cheang accuses employers of fail- ing to stimulate employees. “Maybe the whole working environment is not offering enough challenges to young people to push their creativity,” she says. “Whether they are allowed to exercise their creativity, depends on the compa- ny. Sometimes they are creative and the work does not require them to be crea- tive.”
Employers in the hospitality sector,
at least, insist that they treasure and en- courage creativity in their employees. Trevor Martin, the senior vice-
president for human resources of Gal- axy Entertainment Group Ltd., believes creativity is a crucial requirement in the industry. “We want people to generally feel warmly welcomed. We want them to feel that their needs were anticipated,
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