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Part of managing for innovation is creating the appropriate climate so that people can share and build upon each other's ideas and suggestions. Yet, there are increasing pressures and potential unproductive levels of tension within organizations. This article points out the distinction between two forms of tension that appear within the research on organizational climates for creativity as well as the conflict management literature. The Debate dimension is described as reflecting a more productive idea tension and the Conflict dimension suggests a more non-productive personal tension. A series of studies, across multiple levels of analysis, are summarized and a new study is reported in order to highlight the finding that relatively higher levels of Debate, and lower levels of Conflict are more conducive to organizational creativity and innovation. A practical model for the constructive use of differences is shared, along with a few strategies for reducing the negative tension associated with Conflict and increasing the positive aspects associated with Debate.c aim_558 73..88

The paper provides a research report on leadership styles studied in a range of countries, industry types and organization levels. Unequivocal evidence has been found for a three factor model of style, incorporating the well-known, task-orientedlpeople-oriented factors, and a change-oriented factor. The new factor is presumed to be a consequence of more turbulent environments. Further analysis of the leader reports (supplied by 3,857 respondent 'followers') found ten clusters of 'blends' of style, of which three -labelled super-leaders, gardeners and MBO leaders -were consistently rated more effective and most liked by subordinates. A significant theoretical implication is that the results showed no evidence of contingency effects, i.e. variations in effectiveness, across broad contexts such as branch, function or hierarchic level, although the clusters differed with regard to representation in the different contexts.

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