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.