Perception of the Climate for Creativity in the Workplace: the Role of the Level in the Organization and Gender

Abstract

This paper reports a study conducted to examine differences between employees in managerial and non-managerial positions, as well as between men and women, in their perception of climate for creativity in the workplace. It was hypothesized that, in general, managers would perceive the climate as more favourable than non-managers, and this discrepancy should be modulated by gender. The questionnaire used in the study, conceptually grounded in Amabile's empirical and theoretical work on creativity and innovation, was administered to 388 respondents: 229 female and 159 male participants drawn from a wide range of Polish work organizations. The results show that managers perceive the climate as significantly more conducive to creativity than non-managers do. Female employees perceive the climate less favourably than male employees, although these differences appeared smaller and less frequent as compared to the managers/non-managers comparisons. Moreover, higher positions of female participants in the organization do not improve their perception of the climate to the same extent as it does in the case of male participants. Implications and areas for future research are explored. ę 188

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