Study: Finland loses 150,000 creative people each year
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Prevailing attitudes in Finland are seen as resistant to change, according to fresh study by MDC RISC International. The company's CEO Ilkka Halava sees Finland as a "lazy cat, who needs to have mice put in its mouth".
According to the RISC Monitor study, Finland has a "creative class", which comprises 17% of the population. The number of creative people has declined sharply: a year ago, it still accounted for 20% of the population, and in 2002 it was 22%.
The three-point decline means that 150,000 members of the creative class have disappeared from Finland in a year. But where have they gone?
"They have moved down into the classes which emphasise continuity. Creativity has been replaced by some routine activity", Halava explains. He adds that he does not believe that this kind of decline can continue, and he thinks that the bottom has been reached.
The concept of a "creative class" was coined a couple of years ago by American researcher Richard Florida in his best-selling book The Rise of the Creative Class.
According to Florida, the creative class includes people such as artists, IT experts, and researchers, who are the engines of economic growth and employment.
According to RISC Monitor, the creative class is typified by a desire for change, flexibility, and independence. Members of the creative class take an open view of other cultures, have an empathetic outlook toward other people, and a positive attitude toward technology.
RISC Monitor's conclusion that Finland has a shortage of creative people differs from that of Richard Florida, whose "creativity index" places Finland in the number-two spot of creativity right after Sweden.
Halava attributes the perceived decline of Finland's creative class to a "conservative materialism", which he says has taken over in Finland.
Managers at workplaces take a negative view of initiative and creativity, focusing instead on efficiency and close supervision of their subordinates' activities.
"The creative class needs an oxygen-rich growth environment: workplaces which emphasise flexibility, experimentation, and tolerance of differences. Here in Finland a strong culture of management by numbers prevails, which robs the creative class of the oxygen it needs", Halava says.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 12.4.2005 - TODAY |
 Study: Finland loses 150,000 creative people each year |
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