Research on Workplace Creativity: A Review and Redirection

Abstract

Workplace creativity exhibited by individual employees and teams is a key driver of organizational innovation and success. After briefly touching upon issues related to the historical roots of research on workplace creativity, we focus on reviewing empirical work published since 2000 by researchers in the field of organizational psychology and management. We observe that although earlier research tended to take either an actor-centered or a context-centered approach, continuing to do so may have diminishing returns. To understand creativity in all its complexity and potential, an interactionist perspective that emphasizes actor-context interactive effects on creativity holds much promise. Moreover, after reviewing existing work taking an interactionist approach, we conclude that the nature of the actor-context interaction needs further theoretical advancement and refinement. Toward this end, we propose a typology that reveals a complex and intriguing set of actor-context interactions, including ones that are synergistic, antagonistic, inhibitory, remedial, and configurational, as well as ones that show patterns of diminishing gains and diminishing losses. We also discuss future research directions and practical implications.

Imagination and Creativity in Organizations

“…Anderson et al, 2014;George, 2007;Zhou & Hoever, 2014). Komporozos-Athanasiou and Fotaki (2015a) and Weick (2005) observe that scholars and managers alike have tended to be implicitly wary of imagination for its mistaken association with fantasising, believing it requires effective rational and managerial control to subdue (Hjorth, 2005).…”

How does creativity at work influence employee’s positive affect at work?

“…The scant empirical research on workplace creativity outcomes, namely that regarding creativity's impact on performance (e.g., Agars et al, 2008;Zhou & Hoever, 2014), has followed what Yuan and Woodman (2010) called the efficiency-oriented perspective, in which it is assumed that creativity behaviour maximizes organizational efficiency gains, helping the organization to achieve a competitive advantage. Our work endorses a complementary approach of creativity as an activity that promotes meaningfulness of CREATIVITY, MEANINGFULNESS AND AFFECT AT WORK 28…”

“…Considerable value is placed on employees identifying alternative ways of solving problems, and on their creative use of knowledge. Creative behaviour at work is considered a vital way for organizations to gain a competitive advantage (Agars, Kaufman, & Locke, 2008); it not only enables them to respond to unforeseen challenges but also to proactively develop new capabilities (Zhou & Hoever, 2014). Creativity, centred on idea generation, is considered by many authors to be "the first stage in the innovation process" (West, 2002, p. 356).…”

Clima para Criatividade nas Organizações Empresariais: Construção e Validação de Instrumento

“…Os dados citados acima são confi rmados por Nakano e Wechsler (2007) universitário, em forma de teses ou dissertações ou ainda como fruto do trabalho de docentes. Porém, na literatura internacional, observa-se um avanço nas pesquisas sobre criatividade e inovação no ambiente de trabalho, com vários trabalhos realizados nas duas últimas décadas (Zhou & Hoever, 2014), com abordagens teóricas incluindo diferentes níveis de análise, tais como a dos indivíduos, dos grupos e das organizações, que são as denominadas análises multiníveis (Chang, Jia, Takeuch, & Cai, 2014;Lin & Liu, 2012). Anderson, Potočnick e Zhou (2014) também apontam o rápido avanço na produção científi ca sobre criatividade e inovação nas organizações, na última década (Bruno-Faria & Veiga, 2015).…”