Creative team climate in an international accounting office: an exploratory study in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Conventional wisdom presumes that accounting professionals have little capability for creative thinking. An alternative view is that accountants display creativity when provided with organisational opportunities. This view has been tested in a comparative study of professionals drawn from similar educational backgrounds and allocated to consulting, audit and tax duties within the headquarters of a major international firm in Saudi Arabia. A benchmarking approach was adapted. Those professionals placed in the consulting department reported more positive climates and creative outputs. There was evidence that there was scope for increasing the creativity to organisational advantage within the audit, tax and related functions, through more transformational leadership interventions. In view of the educational similarities of the samples, it is concluded that any lack of creative performance within the audit and tax functions is not due to individual deficiencies. Team development and leadership interventions are suggested as promising means of addressing any “creativity gap” in audit and tax team processes.

Transformational Leadership: Practicing What We Teach in the Management Classroom

“…For example, Coad and Berry (1998) found that perceived transformational leadership variables were positively correlated with participants' learning goal orientation, a concept defined as follows: "Individuals with a learning goal orientation have an intrinsic interest in their work, view themselves as being curious, and choose challenging tasks that provide opportunities for learning" (p. 164). Equally, studies have linked transformational leadership with innovation (Howell & Higgins, 1990), idea generation (Sosik, 1997), and creativity (Al-Beraidi & Rickards, 2003). Furthermore, research has suggested that there may be a positive relationship between transformational leadership characteristics and ethics.…”

Antecedents of organizational creativity: drivers, barriers or both?

“…The third theme, creativity-enhancing group culture and climate, requires the group members to trust each other (Andriopoulos, 2001;Sadi and Al-Dubaisi, 2008;Hemlin, 2009); communicate well in the group (Andriopoulos, 2001;Al-Beraidi and Rickards, 2003;Egan, 2005;Sadi and Al-Dubaisi, 2008;Hemlin, 2009;Misra, 2011); have a sense of belonging, cohesiveness, and commitment (Al-Beraidi and Rickards, 2003;Egan, 2005;Hemlin, 2009;Misra, 2011); and have a positive attitude toward other group members (Egan, 2005). It is equally important to have clear objectives for group work (Al-Beraidi and Rickards, 2003;Egan, 2005), an open environment (e.g., Andriopoulos, 2001;Hemlin, 2009), a supportive learning culture (Thompson 2003;Yoon et al 2010), psychological safety (Andriopoulos, 2001;Hemlin, 2009;Kessel et al, 2012), and shared vision and goals (Al-Beraidi and Rickards, 2003). Creativity is enhanced naturally if group members are motivated (Amabile, 1983), but, additionally, adequate pressure and demand are needed to spark the motivation of the team (West, 2004;Hemlin, 2009).…”

Development and Validation of Team Creativity Measures: A Complex Systems Perspective

“…Amabile et al (1996) confirmed that the environment is one of the most important factors to influence the frequency and level of creative actions. Al-Beraidi and Rickards (2003) also found that creative climate activated team members' creativity and Bock et al (2005) explained the vital function of knowledge sharing behaviour on creativity. Thus, it can be seen that existing studies are very interested in team actions, including collaboration, knowledge sharing and inspiring behaviours.…”