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Creativity and Organizational Culture
Abstract
Creativity continues to be regarded as critical for organizational effectiveness. Thus, researchers and practitioners interested in advancing creativity in the workplace have long focused on the role of organizational culture. Although there is debate and discussion on the concept, the belief that organizations need to promote a culture conducive to creativity to survive and thrive in today’s global economy continues to stand the test of time. Accordingly, we begin this chapter with an overview of organizational culture, highlighting seminal theories and models that specify how the construct is conceptualized, manifested, established, and fostered. Next, we discuss the mechanisms by which organizational culture theoretically influences creativity, and underline specific dimensions of organizational culture that have been empirically found to facilitate and hinder it. Here, we pay particular attention to culture dimensions encompassed in (1) the five determinants of organizational culture, (2) the Competing Values Framework, and (3) Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, as these three different frameworks are often drawn upon in the organizational creativity and innovation literature. We conclude our chapter with key considerations for carrying out empirical work, as well as organizational practice, on this important contextual factor for creativity.KeywordsCreativityEmployeesLeadershipTeamsOrganizations
The impact of organizational culture on the successful adoption of artificial intelligence tools can be understood by studying organizational culture. This study examines the impact of organizational culture on the successful adoption of artificial intelligence tools in the modern workplace. Drawing on Hofstede's cultural dimensions and technology acceptance criteria, the research explores the relationship between cultural factors and technology adoption, with a focus on cultural influences and AI tools. Case studies, including one from Microsoft, are used to illustrate successful cultural transformations. The study also analyzes the effects of technological innovation, globalization, and cultural diversity on professional environments, and discusses practical applications and future research avenues for utilizing digital technologies in the AI era of business.
We examine the influence of corporate culture on innovation using a unique set of data from Chinese listed companies over the period 2008-2017. Using the Competing Value Framework, we quantify corporate culture using textual analysis of financial statements. We find a positive and significant impact of a creation culture on innovation measured by both patent applications and citations as well as innovation efficiency. We address endogeneity concerns and conduct a battery of robustness tests, including alternative proxies for both corporate innovation and culture and conclude that variations in culture have a significant impact on firm-level innovation. We also show that a strong creation culture is more likely to spur innovation for firms in more competitive product markets and firms that are subject to higher managerial career concerns. We provide empirical evidence that corporate culture is an important driver in enhancing innovation. Our results have clear implications for directors and shareholders.
This paper reports the most comprehensive meta-analytic examination of the relationship between leadership and both followers’ creative and innovative performance. Specifically, we examined 13 leadership variables (transformational, transactional, ethical, humble, leader-member exchange, benevolent, authoritarian, entrepreneurial, authentic, servant, empowering, supportive, and destructive) using data from 266 studies. In addition to providing robustly estimated correlations, we explore two theoretically and pragmatically important issues: the relative importance of the different leadership constructs and moderators of the relationship between leadership and employee creativity and innovation. Regrading creative performance, authentic, empowering, and entrepreneurial leadership demonstrated the strongest relationships. For innovative performance, both transactional (contingent reward) and supportive leadership appear particularly relevant. The current study synthesizes an important, burgeoning, diverse body of research, and in doing so, generates nuanced evidence that can be used to guide theoretical advancements, improved research designs, and up-to-date policy recommendations regarding leading for creativity, and innovation.
Transformational leadership is commonly assumed to facilitate employee innovation in all cultures. Drawing upon field studies from 17 countries, this meta-analysis revealed that supervisor transformational leadership is positively related to individual- and team-level innovation regardless of national boundaries. However, the relationship is somewhat stronger in countries with higher levels of uncertainty avoidance. These findings suggest that employee innovation in most countries can be enhanced by investing in supervisor transformational leadership, but organizations operating in countries with higher levels of uncertainty avoidance may benefit from this strategy more.
Leadership is a key predictor of employee, team, and organizational creativity and innovation. Research in this area holds great promise for the development of intriguing theory and impactful policy implications, but only if empirical studies are conducted rigorously. In the current paper, we report a comprehensive review of a large number of empirical studies (N = 195) exploring leadership and workplace creativity and innovation. Using this article cache, we conducted a number of systematic analyses and built narrative arguments documenting observed trends in five areas. First, we review and offer improved definitions of creativity and innovation. Second, we conduct a systematic review of the main effects of leadership upon creativity and innovation and the variables assumed to moderate these effects. Third, we conduct a systematic review of mediating variables. Fourth, we examine whether the study designs commonly employed are suitable to estimate the causal models central to the field. Fifth, we conduct a critical review of the creativity and innovation measures used, noting that most are sub-optimal. Within these sections, we present a number of taxonomies that organize the extant research, highlight understudied areas, and serve as a guide for future variable selection. We conclude by highlighting key suggestions for future research that we hope will reorient the field and improve the rigour of future research such that we can build more reliable and useful theories and policy recommendations.
This study examines how nurse managers’ transformational leadership relates to innovative work behavior of subordinate nurses through creative self-efficacy, trust in supervisor, and uncertainty avoidance. On the basis of an interactional approach, this study hypothesized that (a) there is an interaction between transformational leadership, trust in supervisor, and uncertainty avoidance that affects innovative work behavior, such that transformational leadership has the strongest positive relationship with innovative work behavior when nurses have high levels of trust and uncertainty avoidance; and (b) creative self-efficacy mediates the effect that this three-way interaction between transformational leadership, trust in supervisor, and uncertainty avoidance has on innovative work behavior. In Study 1, we used a time-lagged research design, collecting multisource data from 322 nurses and their respective head nurses (supervisors), working in public sector hospitals. The results of Study 1 supported our hypotheses. In Study 2, we used a more temporally rigorous research design in which data were collected in three stages, with a 3-month time interval separating Stages 1 and 2, and Stages 2 and 3. On the basis of the time-lagged and multisource data from 371 nurses and their respective head nurses (supervisors), from private sector hospitals, we found that Study 2 produced the same results as Study 1.
Research on the effects of rewards on creativity has resulted in hundreds of empirical studies and several reviews of the reward–creativity relationship (RCR). Most reviews are retrospective in nature. They have quantitatively summarised and integrated previous research findings, but have largely overlooked the need for a theoretical framework to guide future research. The current systematic review of this literature intends to bridge this gap, based on the findings of 329 papers and book chapters. Our review summarises the theoretical developments in reward–creativity (RC) research, and classifies the literature in three distinct phases, i.e. the emergence of the cognitive perspective; behavioural rebuttal, and convergence. The paper identifies three important gaps in the existing RC literature: (1) the moderating effects of individual, group, organisational, and national-level factors; (2) the mediating role of cognitive and affective states; and (3) the lack of consideration of creativity as a multidimensional construct. Based on these gaps, the paper presents a four-factor framework to guide future RC research. It identifies potential moderators and mediators of the RCR, and draws attention to creativity as a multidimensional construct.
Innovation is considered to be one of the key factors that influence the long-term
success of a company in the competitive markets of today. As a result, there is a growing interest
in the further study of the determining factors of innovation. Today, the focus is on these factors
related to people and behavior, emphasizing the role of organizational culture, as a factor that
can both stimulate or restrain innovation, and therefore affect company performance. However,
there is little empirical research linking these variables, particularly in the Spanish context.
The purpose of this paper is to study these links by using a sample of industrial companies. The
results show that culture can foster innovation, as well as company performance, or it could also
be an obstacle for both of them, depending on the values promoted by the culture. It has been
found specifically, that an adhocratic culture is the best innovation and performance predictor.
Based on these results, it can be concluded that, innovation mediates the relationship between
certain types of organizational cultures and performance.
Our focus is on organizational culture and climate and the role that these constructs play in understanding individual as well as collective attitudes, behavior, and performance. We begin with the assumption that both constructs rest upon the notion of shared meanings or a shared understanding of aspects of the organizational context. Climate is defined as a perceptually based description of the what the organization is like in terms of practices, policies, procedures, and routines while culture helps define the underlying reasons and mechanisms for why these things occur in an organization based on fundamental ideologies, assumptions, values, and artifacts. The first half of the chapter provides a comprehensive review of the culture and climate literatures. The second half is framed around a multilevel model that integrates culture and climate through the linking mechanism of organizational structure, practices, and policies. This discussion elucidates a set of mechanisms that foster the emergence of organizational culture and climate and highlights the impact of weak emergent processes on individual and organizational outcomes. We then discuss the topic of culture and climate change and conclude by reviewing directions for future research.
Keywords:
emergent processes;
levels of analysis;
organizational climate;
organizational culture;
shared perceptions
We propose that the propensity to think creatively tends to be associated with independence and self-direction-qualities generally ascribed to men-so that men are often perceived to be more creative than women. In two experiments, we found that "outside the box" creativity is more strongly associated with stereotypically masculine characteristics (e.g., daring and self-reliance) than with stereotypically feminine characteristics (e.g., cooperativeness and supportiveness; Study 1) and that a man is ascribed more creativity than a woman when they produce identical output (Study 2). Analyzing archival data, we found that men's ideas are evaluated as more ingenious than women's ideas (Study 3) and that female executives are stereotyped as less innovative than their male counterparts when evaluated by their supervisors (Study 4). Finally, we observed that stereotypically masculine behavior enhances a man's perceived creativity, whereas identical behavior does not enhance a woman's perceived creativity (Study 5). This boost in men's perceived creativity is mediated by attributions of agency, not competence, and predicts perceptions of reward deservingness.
Empirical work on the effect of team cognition on team creativity and innovation is particularly sparse. While research on individual cognitive processes that lead to creativity and innovation is much more prevalent, interest in team cognition is more recent. Several important themes emerge from the research reported here. First, much of the work on team cognitive processes is focused on social cognition. Second, the various dimensions of team cognitive processes are interrelated. Third, while no research directly assessed the role of time on these cognitive processes, time may play an important part. The cognitive processes associated with creative problem solving, such as problem construction, idea generation, and idea evaluation and selection, can be viewed as occurring in a natural progression. Fourth, team cognitive processes can also influence, be influenced by, and interact with team social processes. Finally, team cognitive processes can mediate or moderate the relationship between team composition and team creativity and innovation.
This research explored the relation between culture and creative potential in highly educated adults. It was hypothesized that culture would influence creative potential and achievement, largely through how individualistic (citizens serving themselves) or collectivistic (citizens serving society) the society of origin was. To this end, 55 American and 56 Chinese doctoral students were surveyed concerning their creative potential, their sense of individualism or collectivism, and their Graduate Record Examination quantitative subtest scores. Americans displayed significantly higher scores on a measure of creative potential than the Chinese. As expected, Americans showed greater individualism. Chinese were more collectivistic. Chinese had significantly higher skill mastery in the domain of mathematics. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for understanding cultural differences in creativity are considered.
Schein's (1985) model of organizational culture as assumptions, values, and artifacts leaves gaps regarding the appreciation of organizational culture as symbols and processes. This article examines these gaps and suggests a new model that combines Schein's theory with ideas drawn from symbolic-interpretive perspectives. The new model, called cultural dynamics, articulates the processes of manifestation, realization, symbolization, and interpretation and provides a framework within which to discuss the dynamism of organizational cultures. Implications of the cultural dynamics model for collecting and analyzing culture data and for future theoretical development are presented.
We examine the effects of conflict and conflict asymmetry on creativity in interdisciplinary teams. Testing our hypotheses on teams working on graduate-level nanobiotechnology projects, we found task conflict to have a positive relationship with creativity whereas relationship conflict had a negative relationship with creativity. Our results also revealed that relationship conflict asymmetry had a positive effect on creativity. Examining the two components of creativity separately, we found that relationship conflict asymmetry explained variance in the novelty component, whereas task conflict, team size, and functional diversity explained variance in the usefulness component.
SUMMARY—As the workplace has become increasingly diverse, there has been a tension between the promise and the reality of diversity in team process and performance. The optimistic view holds that diversity will lead to an increase in the variety of perspectives and approaches brought to a problem and to opportunities for knowledge sharing, and hence lead to greater creativity and quality of team performance. However, the preponderance of the evidence favors a more pessimistic view: that diversity creates social divisions, which in turn create negative performance outcomes for the group.
This study investigates differences observed among popular press business books (b-books) written by multiple authors, mixed-gender authors, male vis-à-vis female authors, books published by the Harvard Business School Press compared to other presses combined, and books published between 1980 and 2006. 110 b-books were randomly selected from a population of 1,200 library b-books. These b-book variables were compared based on a depth of culture content measure (dependent variable). Using One-Way ANOVAs, five null-hypotheses were tested. Publication eras differed significantly, with p= .041. The number of co-authors on a b-book differed significantly, with p= .032. The emergent theme in the b-books appears to be leaders must be dialed directly in to hidden hierarchies of their organizational cultures in order to steer them towards fortitude.
Creativity and innovation in any organization are vital to its successful performance. The authors review the rapidly growing body of research in this area with particular attention to the period 2002 to 2013, inclusive. Conceiving of both creativity and innovation as being integral parts of essentially the same process, we propose a new, integrative definition. We note that research into creativity has typically examined the stage of idea generation, whereas innovation studies have commonly also included the latter phase of idea implementation. The authors discuss several seminal theories of creativity and innovation, then apply a comprehensive levels-of-analysis framework to review extant research into individual, team, organizational, and multi-level innovation. Key measurement characteristics of the reviewed studies are then noted. In conclusion, we propose a guiding framework for future research comprising eleven major themes and sixty specific questions for future studies.
Previous research has pointed to the importance of transformational leadership in facilitating employees' creative outcomes. However, the mechanism by which transformational leadership cultivates employees' creative problem-solving capacity is not well understood. Drawing on theories of leadership, information processing and creativity, we proposed and tested a model in which psychological safety and reflexivity mediate the effect of transformational leadership and creative problem-solving capacity. The results of survey data collected at three points in time indicate that transformational leadership facilitates the development of employees' creative problem-solving capacity by shaping a climate of psychological safety conducive to reflexivity processes. However, the findings also indicate that psychological safety is related both directly and indirectly, through reflexivity, to employees' creative problem-solving capacity. This study sheds further light on the ways in which transformational leaders help to develop and cultivate employees' capacity for creative problem-solving.
It is generally understood that human resource practices and strategies differ according to contextual factors such as size, industry and so forth. However, the globalization of business means that country differences in the environment for organizations have received increasing attention. Although countries can differ in many important ways (e.g. institutional and regulatory environments, labour-force characteristics such as education), a dominant focus of the international management literature is on national differences in culture, especially cultural values (Hofstede, 1980). We examine the assumptions that underlie this emphasis on the importance of national culture differences in international management and re-analyse findings from previous research, such as Hofstede's, to test these assumptions. We find, contrary to the interpretations of the original authors, that these assumptions receive only weak support when country effects are evaluated using variance explained estimates, rather than relying solely on statistical significance tests. We conclude that, while national culture differences can be important and must be understood, their role needs to be put in the context of other important contextual factors, including organizational culture.
This article explores the relationship between culture and creativity and innovation. It critically reviews the literature in which cross cultural differences in approaches to creativity and innovation are discussed. It first examines how creativity is conceptualized differentially across cultures and how social structural factors account for differences in creativity and innovation. Evidence for the impact of culture on cognitive style and personality as related to creativity and innovation is covered next. Finally, it addresses directly the relationship between cultural values and creativity/innovation. The article draws the following conclusions: (1) culture can and does impact on creative and innovation processes, but the relationship should not be considered universalistically, simplistically or unreflexively; (2) there is insufficient evidence to enable definitive statements to be made about systematic differences across cultures in personality or cognitive style with respect to creativity; (3) creativity and innovation are complex psychosocial processes involving numerous salient factors of which culture is but one; (4) the weight of evidence suggests that the relationship should be viewed contingently and in subtle and nuanced ways. A contingent view suggests that there are different processes, mechanisms, and structures through which creativity and innovation emerge. Cultures are creative and innovative within the context of their own systems and the exigencies and contingencies of those particular systems.
Previous research, from Guilford's founding tradition to more modern research on individual creativity and general group processes, falls short of adequately describing team-level creativity. Alhough researchers have addressed brainstorming in groups with mixed findings, little is known about how creative minds interact in group processes. In this article, we examine the specific group processes and dynamics that may affect team-level creative production and present a description of the ways in which diversity and different types of conflict in groups may affect the creative process. Finally, we offer suggestions for future research on creativity as a dynamic, team-level process.
Geert Hofstede’s legendary national culture research is critiqued. Crucial assumptions which underlie his claim to have uncovered the secrets of entire national cultures are described and challenged. The plausibility of systematically causal national cultures is questioned.
This paper presents a model of team learning and tests it in a multimethod field study. It introduces the construct of team psychological safety—a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking—and models the effects of team psychological safety and team efficacy together on learning and performance in organizational work teams. Results of a study of 51 work teams in a manufacturing company, measuring antecedent, process, and outcome variables, show that team psychological safety is associated with learning behavior, but team efficacy is not, when controlling for team psychological safety. As predicted, learning behavior mediates between team psychological safety and team performance. The results support an integrative perspective in which both team structures, such as context support and team leader coaching, and shared beliefs shape team outcomes.
This is essentially a textbook in organizational culture. But, unlike most textbooks authors, Professor Martin is making a contribution to the field in that she focusses on a way of looking at the field that is new. In the past, those who have studied organizational culture have usually done so from one of three perspectives: 1) “Integration” - all members of an organization share a consensus of values and purpose; 2) “Differentiation” - there are frequent conflicts among groups in organizations with limited consensus; 3) “Fragmentation” - there is considereable ambiguity in organizations with consensus coexisting with conflict, and much change among groups. The author argues that the best way to view organizations is to see them through all three perspectives - each revealing a different kind of truth. The author has done extensive research studying the organizational culture of a large California high technology firm (which is not identified in the book). She interviewed many employees at different levels and in different departments, and used surveys to extend the interviews. Her work is like an ethnography in which the researcher’s own perspectives and cultural norms have to be accounted for. As a result, the book explores what she learned from her studies and how she learned it.
This textbook is a systematic and straightforward introduction to the interdisciplinary study of creativity. Each chapter is written by one or more of the world's experts and features the latest research developments, alongside foundational knowledge. Each chapter also includes an introduction, key terms, and critical thought questions to promote active learning. Topics and authors have been selected to represent a comprehensive and balanced overview. Any reader will come away with a deeper understanding of how creativity is studied – and how they can improve their own creativity.
Employee creativity can bolster organizational competitiveness and survival. Although, when in host countries, expatriate top management leaders (ETML) are often challenged to constantly exhibit integrity that positively impacts the creativity of employees, despite prevalent organizational cultures’ (OCs) influences. Varying influences of distinct OCs and questionable ETML integrity have also been argued to have unpredictable influences on the creativity prowess of several emerging economies like Nigeria. It is, thus, unclear from the literature how ETML and distinct OCs act to inspire employee creativity. This study investigated the relationship between ETML integrity, OC and employee creativity. A cross-sectional survey design was administered to 439 participants from 22 manufacturing organizations in Nigeria, and data analysis was executed by leveraging partial least square path modelling (SmartPLS 3). Results indicated that ETML integrity and adhocracy OC have positive associations with employee creativity. Equally, clan and market OCS reflect negative associations with employee creativity. Surprisingly, ETML integrity dampens the positive relationships between adhocracy OC and hierarchy OC, and employee creativity. Furthermore, ETML integrity reinforces the association of clan OC and market OC with employee creativity. This study offers substantive and significant contributions that can be applied to emerging economies with similar concerns and context.
We identify creative companies by means of a textual analysis that hinges on the competing values framework. We show that a creative corporate culture is an important driver of innovation, as measured by the number of patents as well as the patents’ importance as captured by patents’ citations and market values. A portfolio of creative companies earns significantly positive annual four-factor alphas. We quantify potential biases that could be induced by the omission of relevant variables by formally examining coefficient movements after inclusion of controls.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain a clear understanding of the impact of uncommon use of knowledge (adaptation and augmentation) on the performance of information systems (IS) departments, and to explore the effects of human-resources management (HRM) practices on uncommon use of knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire-based survey was used to measure the constructs of the research model. A survey package was delivered to project managers or team leads and 133 responses were returned.
Findings
The empirical results indicate that knowledge adaptation has a significant effect on departmental performance, whereas knowledge augmentation is more important to innovation than to routine departmental performance. The results also show that, while knowledge adaptation can be enhanced by communication and an uncertainty-avoidance culture, knowledge augmentation is an outcome of shared decision-making, the use of teams, and innovation-based policies.
Research limitations/implications
Given the positive impact of uncommon use of knowledge on IS department performance, future research should explore other factors besides HRM practices to boost it.
Practical implications
The results can serve as guidance for managers looking to select HRM practices to promote uncommon use of knowledge.
Originality/value
This study introduces knowledge adaptation and knowledge augmentation as the component processes of uncommon use of knowledge to the IS discipline, and empirically validates the antecedents and consequences of uncommon use of knowledge using survey data.
Team creativity has been recognized as an important to organizational success in a competitive market. Organizations face complex problems and frequently utilize teams to solve these problems because of the diverse perspectives, knowledge, and experience of team members. However, creative teams frequently encounter challenges and obstacles to effective problem solving. Leaders of creative teams play a critical part in facilitating team creative problem solving, team effectiveness, and creative outcomes. In this chapter, the authors review the literature on creative team leadership and discuss the vital role of creative team leaders in managing the creative problem-solving effort, managing team social processes, and managing the environment in which the team functions. Leaders manage the creative problem-solving process through facilitating idea generation, promoting effective problem construction, encouraging information sharing among team members, assisting in idea evaluation and selection, and providing support throughout the problem-solving process. Leaders further manage team interactions through capitalizing on the functional diversity of team members, creating an environment of psychological safety and trust, supporting a climate of innovation, managing task and relational conflict, and facilitating effective communication and collaboration. Finally, leaders manage the external environment, referring to both the internal organizational environment (but external to the team), as well as the environment external to the organization. Successful management of the external environment is accomplished by ensuring the team has adequate resources, facilitating communication and collaboration with other teams and with the environment outside of the organization, and serving as a “champion of innovation.”. © Michael D. Mumford and Sven Hemlin 2017. All rights reserved.
Rooted in the Nigerian manufacturing industry experience, this study, investigates the effect of top management leader's benevolence on the impact of organisational culture (OC) on employee creativity. Structural equation modelling (SEM) results indicated that top management leader's benevolence, and adhocracy OC have positive and significant effects on employee creativity. Market and clan OC have significant negative effects on employee creativity. However, hierarchy OC has no significant effect on employee creativity. Likewise, benevolence has no significant moderating effect on the impact of clan OC on employee creativity, and has a significant negative moderating effect on the impact of adhocracy OC on employee creativity. SEM results demonstrated that benevolence has a significant positive moderating effect on the impact of market OC on employee creativity, and a significant negative moderating effect on the impact of hierarchy OC on employee creativity. Policy implications and future directions are also discussed.
This study examined whether organizational culture moderates relationships between transformational leadership (TFL) and employee self-rated creative performance (CP). A convenience sample of 147 working professionals from 109 Fortune 500 organizations participated in the study by completing measures of their organizations’ cultures, their managers’ leadership styles, and their own CP, as well as relevant control measures. Adhocracy culture type moderated the relationship between levels of TFL and CP. Consequently, market culture type was a non-significant moderator for predicting TFL–CP relationships. Both adhocracy and market culture types were non-significant mediators of TFL on CP. The theoretical model in this study provides an important extension of TFL and organizational culture theories and a greater understanding of how adhocracy culture interacts with TFL to influence employee CP. This study also provides researchers and practitioners with a better comprehension of how to achieve higher levels of CP given the interaction between TFL and adhocracy culture.
Building on role congruity theory, we predict that innovative work behaviors are stereotypically ascribed to men more than to women. Because of this bias, women who innovate may not receive better performance evaluations than those who do not innovate, whereas engaging in innovative work behaviors is beneficial for men. These predictions were supported across 3 complementary field and experimental studies. The results of an experiment (Study 1; N = 407) revealed that innovative work behaviors are stereotypically associated with men more than women. In Studies 2 and 3, using multisource employee evaluation data (N = 153) and by experimentally manipulating innovative work behaviors (N = 232), respectively, we found that favorable performance evaluations were associated with innovative work behaviors for men but not for women. These studies highlight a previously unidentified form of sex bias and are particularly important for those wishing to increase innovative behaviors in the workplace: We need to address this phenomenon of “think innovation-think male.”
Leveraging insights gained through a burgeoning research literature over the past 28 years, this paper presents a significant revision of the model of creativity and innovation in organizations published in Research in Organizational Behavior in 1988. This update focuses primarily on the individual-level psychological processes implicated in creativity that have been illuminated by recent research, and highlights organizational work environment influences on those processes. We revisit basic assumptions underlying the 1988 model, modify certain components and causal connections, and introduce four new constructs into the model: (1) a sense of progress in creative idea development; (2) the meaningfulness of the work to those carrying it out; (3) affect; and (4) synergistic extrinsic motivation. Throughout, we propose ways in which the components underlying individual and team creativity can both influence and be influenced by organizational factors crucial to innovation.
Drawing on the componential theory of creativity, social cognitive theory, and prosocial motivation theory, we examined intrinsic motivation, creative self-efficacy, and prosocial motivation as distinct motivational mechanisms underlying creativity. Results from a meta-analysis of 191 independent samples (N = 51,659) documented in the relevant literature revealed that intrinsic motivation, creative self-efficacy, and prosocial motivation each had unique explanatory power in predicting creativity, and that the three motivational mechanisms functioned differently as mediators between contextual and personal factors and creativity. The relationships of intrinsic motivation and creative self-efficacy with creativity also were found to be contingent upon sample characteristics and methodological factors (i.e., national culture, creativity measure, intrinsic motivation and creative self-efficacy measures, and publication status). Our findings highlight the need to develop a more fine-grained theory of motivation and creativity. Implications for theoretical extensions and future research are discussed.
Innovation is a popular area of study in a variety of fields, such as business, economics, engineering, psychology, public administration, and sociology. It is viewed as a concept central to economic growth, the creation of new industries and businesses, competitive advantage and performance of firms, and the effective management of business and public organizations. Innovation in organizations is generally understood in two ways: more specifically, it is distinguished from closely related concepts like creativity and change; more broadly, it includes all. Innovation has been used to represent a variety of concepts and phenomena, including creativity and creative problem solving, speed or extent of product introduction, organizational change, technological change, acquisition of new firms, and so on. Researchers have conceived of innovations in organizations as both a discrete product and outcome, or as a process. The primary goal of the studies of innovation as an outcome is to determine the contextual, structural, and process conditions under which organizations innovate. Innovation as outcome is intended to create a new opportunity or satisfy an existing opportunity, and thus, to contribute to the organization's effectiveness and competitiveness.
We develop a conceptual model to theorize the impact of high versus low power distance cultural contexts on group creativity and individual group member creativity. High power distance cultural contexts manifest in group social environments where status differentiation among individuals is expected and accepted. This hierarchical social environment is substantially different from the relatively equal social environment in low power distance cultural contexts. Building on this premise, we theorize how and why power distance cultural contexts may (1) impact group creativity by influencing the divergent and convergent processes at the group level and (2) impact the creativity of individual group members by influencing an individual's cognitive task involvement and impression management motives. Further, we identify contextual factors and individual differences that may moderate the impact of power distance. This conceptual model advances our understanding of how creative processes in groups may differ in different cultural contexts as well as suggests ways to foster group creativity in non-Western high power distance cultural contexts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Synthesizing theories of leadership, empowerment, and creativity, this research built and tested a theoretical model linking empowering leadership with creativity via several intervening variables. Using survey data from professional employees and their supervisors in a large information technology company in China, we found that, as anticipated, empowering leadership positively affected psychological empowerment, which in turn influenced both intrinsic motivation and creative process engagement. These latter two variables then had a positive influence on creativity. Empowerment role identity moderated the link between empowering leadership and psychological empowerment, whereas leader encouragement of creativity moderated the connection between psychological empowerment and creative process engagement.
Using a multi-year qualitative study, I explain how employees at a fast-growing retail organization used creative resourcing - that is, the manipulation and recombination of objects in novel and useful ways to solve problems. I induce two core organizational processes (autonomous resourcing and directed resourcing) that explain how organizations foster ongoing creative activities in response to different perceived resource endowments. In doing so, I add clarity to a mixed literature that argues on the one hand that limited resources foster creativity, and on the other, that abundant resources foster creativity. Instead, I reorient the questions that scholars ask by shifting the conversation away from variance-explanation models and towards understanding organizational processes, specifically around how employees use resources in dynamic ways and how managers enable them to do so. My study unpacks how the link between resources and creativity is rooted deeply in the actions of managers and employees embedded in organizations over time. In elaborating theory around these actions, I contribute to scholarly and practitioner understanding around how organizations foster creativity in a variety of resource environments. © Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted without the copyright holder's express written permission. Users may print, download, or email articles for individual use only.
It is a widely held belief that culture is a factor that influences creativity. The influence of culture on creativity is, however, relatively understudied and the majority of creativity research focuses on creativity at the level of the individual or organization. In this article, the relationship between Hofstede's cultural values (individualism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance) and national level scores on two separate creativity indexes—the Global Creativity Index (GCI) and the Design and Creativity Index (DCI) was examined. A multivariate multiple linear regression analyses showed a strong positive relationship between individualism and national ranking on the GCI and DCI. No significant relationship was found between the creativity measures and Hofstede's power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The positive relationship between individualism and creativity suggests that autonomy, independence, and freedom—beliefs associated with individualism—are needed for a nation to be creative.
Taking an interactional approach, we hypothesized that (a) there is an interaction between empowering leadership, uncertainty avoidance, and trust that affects creativity, such that empowering leadership has the strongest positive relationship with creativity when the employees have high levels of uncertainty avoidance and trust their supervisors; and (b) creative self-efficacy mediates the effect that this three-way interaction between empowering leadership, uncertainty avoidance and trust has on creativity. In Study 1, we used a time-lagged research design, collecting multi-source data from 322 employees and their supervisors. The results of Study 1 supported our hypotheses. In Study 2, we used a more temporally rigorous research design in which data were collected in three stages, with a two-month time interval separating Stages 1 and 2, and Stages 2 and 3. On the basis of the time-lagged and multi-source data from 199 employees and their supervisors, Study 2 produced the same results as Study 1. We discuss the implications of these results for future research and practice.
This paper proposes that the social context moderates the effect of culture on creativity by drawing on the constructivist dynamic approach. We assess creativity by the level of fluency, originality, and elaboration on the usefulness and appropriateness of ideas in three contexts: working under a supervisor, in a group, and alone. We hypothesized that in high power distance cultures, working under a supervisor inhibits creativity, whereas in individualistic cultures, the presence of peers attenuates creativity. Results from two parallel experiments, one in the United States (N = 79) and the other in China (N = 83), partially support the hypotheses. The Chinese originality level was significantly lower when working under a supervisor than when working alone. American subjects generated fewer ideas and elaborated less when working in the presence of peers and elaborated less in the presence of peers than when under a supervisor. We conclude that the social context moderates the culture–creativity relationship by making consensual cultural values more accessible in a social context than when working alone. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This article describes briefly the Hofstede model of six dimensions of national cultures: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Long/Short Term Orientation, and Indulgence/Restraint. It shows the conceptual and research efforts that preceded it and led up to it, and once it had become a paradigm for comparing cultures, research efforts that followed and built on it. The article stresses that dimensions depend on the level of aggregation; it describes the six entirely different dimensions found in the Hofstede et al. (2010) research into organizational cultures. It warns against confusion with value differences at the individual level. It concludes with a look ahead in what the study of dimensions of national cultures and the position of countries on them may still bring.
Barron (1997) and Helson (1990) independently have suggested that a central element in all forms of creativity is the desire or goal to be creative, implying creativity as a core value. Based on these assertions and Schwartz's (1992) theory, we tested the prediction that creative individuals will hold a different values system than their less creative counterparts. University students (N = 278) completed the Schwartz Values Survey (Schwartz, 1992), as well as a behaviorally-based self-report measure of creative accomplishments. At separate occasions, 134 of these participants also devised three creative products rated by the consensual assessment method. In keeping with prediction, creative accomplishments and products correlated significantly not only with the self-direction value composite (both including and excluding the individual item creativity), but also universalism and stimulation. Accomplishments and products correlated negatively with the value composites of tradition, security, and power. These results support the view that creativity is grounded in values, and support Schwartz's model of the dynamic structure of values as a predictor of behavior.