Procrustes' Bed Metaphor: Understanding the Problem of Creativity and Innovation in the Human Resources of Iran's State-Owned Enterprises

Creative and innovative human resources have a tremendous impact on the survival and improvement of the organization. Management has to pave the way for creativity and innovation. The current research seeks to explain one of the main reasons for the problem of creativity and innovation in Iran's big-size state-owned enterprises with the help of a metaphor (here, Procrustes' bed metaphor).

This research has been done descriptively. A questionnaire containing six questions with a Likert scale was designed to investigate the current situation using the help of human resources experts and the Delphi method. Questionnaires were distributed among experts and experts in charge of five big-size state-owned companies, and finally, 124 questionnaires were analyzed descriptively.

The research findings show that the Procrustes bed has become a company desk in Iran's state-owned enterprises. The freedom of action to present creative and innovative ideas, the possibility of implementing innovative ideas, welcoming new ideas, supportive management, offering rewards to new ideas, and overall satisfaction with the current state are unfavourable.

Originality/Value: 

Following the social sciences and especially structuring and problem-solving approaches, we believe that knowing the problem is the first and most crucial step in solving a problem. Based on this, we introduced Procrustes' bed metaphor in this research to understand the existing situation.