Novelty*Usefulness: Cultural Influences on Creativity in Organizations

Abstract

We delineate actor-level and cultural differences to examine the impact of culture on creativity in organizations. We conceptualize actor-level differences in terms of creativity-relevant processes, intrinsic motivation, and domain-relevant skills; and we conceptualize cultural differences in terms of the cultural dimensions of individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power-distance, and masculinity. Using meta-analytic techniques, we find that cultural dimensions to different main effects on creativity. We also find the cultural dimensions to differentially influence the actor level differences. In discussing our findings, we highlight how organizations should place an emphasis on either the novelty or usefulness aspects of creativity to compensate for cultural tendencies.