Creative Climate Research Articles

The relationship between proactive personality and creative behavior

The purposes of this study were to examine the influence of proactive personality on creative behavior, the mediating effect of learning goal orientation in the relationship between proactive personality and creative behavior, the moderating effect of creative self-efficacy in the relationship between proactive personality and learning goal orientation, the moderating effects of organizational creative climate and supervisor support for creativity in the relationship between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Data were gathered from 330 employees who were working in one organization in Korea. To reduce the effect from the common method bias, the creative behavior was rated by others(three hundred and thirty peers, subordinates, and supervisors). As a result, learning goal orientation partially mediated the relationships between proactive personality and creative behavior. Creative self-efficacy moderated the relationship between proactive personality and learning goal orientation. Organizational creative climate moderated the relationship between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Also supervisor support for creativity had a moderating effect between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Finally, implication of results and future research tasks were discussed with limitations.

Editorial

Editorial

The Relationship between Proactive Personality and Creative Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Learning Goal Orientation and Moderating Effects of Self-Efficacy, Organizational Climate, and Supervisor Support

The purposes of this study were to examine the influence of proactive personality on creative behavior, the mediating effect of learning goal orientation in the relationship between proactive personality and creative behavior, the moderating effect of creative self-efficacy in the relationship between proactive personality and learning goal orientation, the moderating effects of organizational creative climate and supervisor support for creativity in the relationship between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Data were gathered from 330 employees who were working in one organization in Korea. To reduce the effect from the common method bias, the creative behavior was rated by others(three hundred and thirty peers, subordinates, and supervisors). As a result, learning goal orientation partially mediated the relationships between proactive personality and creative behavior. Creative self-efficacy moderated the relationship between proactive personality and learning goal orientation. Organizational creative climate moderated the relationship between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Also supervisor support for creativity had a moderating effect between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Finally, implication of results and future research tasks were discussed with limitations.

A Multilevel Model of Team Goal Orientation, Information Exchange, and Creativity

Adopting a multilevel approach, we examined how team goal orientation may relate to team creativity and individual creativity. We also theorized and examined the bottom- up process linking individual creativity and team creativity. Multisource data were collected from 485 members and their leaders within 100 R&D teams. The results indicated that a team learning goal and team performance approach goal were positively related-whereas a team performance avoidance goal was negatively related- to both team creativity and individual creativity through team information exchange. Furthermore, a trust relationship with a team leader played a moderating role: when the trust was stronger, the indirect positive relationship with team creativity and individual creativity was stronger for the team learning goal but weaker for the team performance approach goal. We also found that average individual creativity within a team was positively related to team creativity (going above and beyond the effect of team information exchange) through a supportive climate for creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative leaders promote creative organizations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of leaders’ creativity as a predictor of organizational creativity. The authors expected that creative leaders would promote creativity directly by functioning as a model and inspiration for their followers and indirectly by promoting a creativity‐supporting work climate.Design/methodology/approachThe research was conducted in organizations within the restaurant sector; the data were obtained using questionnaires to employees and leaders (n=207), as well as external raters’ evaluation of restaurant creativity level. Responses from each organization were aggregated using mean scores (n=39).FindingsSignificant positive associations were found between leaders’ creative behavior, organizational creative climates, and organizational creative behavior. Mediation analyses revealed that the relationship between leaders’ creative behavior and organizational creativity was mediated by organizational creative climate.Practical implicationsThe results may provide useful guidelines for organizations that put emphasis on creativity, both for leader recruitment and leader development.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the creativity literature since it is one of the first to explore leader personality and leader creative behavior as predictors of creativity in organizations.

Thinking Outside the Clocks: The Effect of Layered‐Task Time on the Creative Climate of Meetings

AbstractThe turbulence of the new economy puts demands on organizations to respond rapidly, flexibly and creatively to changing environments. Meetings are one of the organizational sites in which organizational actors “do” creativity; interaction in groups can be an important site for generating creative ideas and brainstorming. Additionally, Blount (2004) demonstrated the importance of organizational temporalities for group performance. We draw on both of these literatures and examine how temporal structures influence the climate for creativity, or the extent to which creativity is fostered, within groups. Specifically, we develop a hypothesis linking organization‐ and job‐level temporal structures to the extent to which managers structure meetings with a climate supportive of creativity. Our results demonstrate that a nuanced relationship exists between temporal structures and creative climate such that certain temporal structures appear to either enhance or decrease the creative climate of meetings. We end with a discussion of the implications of the findings for management.

Creativity in business schools – post financial crisis implications

PurposeThis paper aims to highlight for the first time, creativity's vital role in a new approach in the higher education world which can improve the current university instructional strategies post financial crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper offers a theoretical framework which has emerged from literature review and personal business and educational experiences of the authors. It seeks to provide synthetically some answers/“solutions”, focusing on a three dimensional framework: where to play the game of creativity; how to deliver creativity to business students, meaning by what structures and methods; and how to win in implementing this game.FindingsMany researchers appeared to focus on making their findings applicable to the entire education system paying little attention to issues specific to the business education sector. Succinctly, the focus of the papers is on “how to do it” part, which provides several realistic insights on how to connect communities into the game of creativity. Other methods required relate to: balancing creativity with core essentials; promoting excellence and sustainability; networking between students; faculty, management and community; improving learning environment; developing staff; teaching; learning competencies and programme curricula under an integrated service vision; anticipating educational future trends in networking; and building creative climates and partnerships.Originality/valueThe paper's conclusions and recommendations present a practical set of good practices through the explicit and implicit identification of core characteristics for creativity in higher education. Eventually, the first mission in wanting to be creative is to really comprehend the problem, knowing all ways to approach it.

Implementing organizational physical activity and healthy eating strategies on paid time: process evaluation of the UCLA WORKING pilot study

Integrating organizationally targeted wellness strategies into the routine conduct of business has shown promise in engaging captive audiences at highest risk of obesity and obesity-related health consequences. This paper presents a process evaluation of the implementation of the University of California, Los Angeles, Working Out Regularly Keeps Individuals Nurtured and Going (WORKING) pilot study. WORKING focuses on integrating physical activity and nutrition practices into workplace routine during non-discretionary paid work time. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the quality of implementation and to understand factors that facilitated or hindered organizations' full uptake of the intervention. Fifteen worksites were randomly assigned to an intervention condition. Qualitative data were gathered through routine site visits and informant interviews conducted throughout each worksite's intervention period. Worksites were classified into one of four implementation success categories based on their level of adoption and maintenance of core intervention strategies. Six key factors emerged that were related to implementation success: site layout and social climate, wellness infrastructure, number and influence of Program Champions, leadership involvement, site innovation and creativity. This pilot study has informed the conduct of WORKING II; a cluster randomized controlled trial aimed at enrolling 60-70 worksites in Los Angeles County.

Cross-National Differences in Managers’ Creativity Promoting Values

As more companies rely on the creative potential of their employees across borders to remain competitive, a better understanding of cross-national determinants of creativity is needed. Building on prior work, we identify the national climate for creativity as relevant national-level context variable and argue linkages with managers’ creativity promoting values. In particular, the national climate for creativity is argued to include (a) ideological supportiveness, which on the national level, is captured by low levels of power distance and high levels of assertiveness, (b) perceived freedom in the society, (c) material supportiveness, operationalized as R&D intensity, (d) positive pressure in terms of innovation dependence, (e) negative pressure, captured by high levels of performance orientation in the society, and (f) procedural impediments, operationalized as governmental regulations. We use data from 9,988 managers from 19 European countries and apply Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to test our hypotheses. Results support five of seven hypotheses, indicating the utility of cross-national analyses in understanding managers’ creativity promoting values. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

A cross‐level analysis of organizational creativity climate and perceived innovation

PurposeThe concept that creativity climate facilitates innovation outcome is well‐received, yet it has not been widely tested in non‐Western countries. To fill the gap between concept and practical value, this study adopted the eight‐dimensional model of organizational creativity climate proposed by Amabile and associates with the aim of investigating the cross‐level relationship between creativity climate and employee‐perceived innovation in an Asian work place, i.e. Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey data of 398 employees from different companies of Taiwan, the effect of organizational creativity climate on innovation was explored. Furthermore, the mediating effect of employees' work motivation was also examined.FindingsBy employing hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), statistical analysis indicates that 27 percent variance of perceived innovation could potentially be explained by creativity climate. Five out of the eight dimensions, namely, organizational encouragement, supervisory encouragement, work group support, sufficient resource and challenging work, relate significantly to perceived innovation with the mediation of work motivation.Research limitations/implicationsAs most companies are reluctant to reveal their objective innovation data, the authors had to rely on self‐reported data that are inevitably subjective in nature. Moreover, the fact that only 13 organizations were sampled may weaken the generalizability of the findings to more diverse business contexts.Originality/valueThe findings of this study contribute to advancing organizational climate research and innovation management in a non‐Western country. In addition, by surveying this topic in an innovation‐active context, i.e. Taiwan, this study uncovers rich information on organizational creativity issues for interested parties and for future research.

Organisational Creativity: Building a Business Ba-Haus?

Our focus is on the systemic nature of creativity and the role of business schools in stimulating and enhancing organisational creativity, across all sectors of the economy, particularly those which are not conventionally regarded as ‘creative’ industries. After defining creativity and reviewing a number of frequently occurring ‘creativity clichés’ that are potentially keeping organisational creativity in a rut, we go on to explore some of the key challenges with creativity that need particular focus, including: taking a systemic approach, as well as more attention on ‘difficult’ aspects such as the climate for creativity or creativity ‘ba’. We propose a Systemic Innovation Maturity Framework as a way to conceptualise and organise a way forward in organisations and in business schools. We believe that in a similar way to the Bauhaus of the early 20th century, there needs to be a step change in the way creativity is researched, taught and applied that encompasses a more ecological approach. We believe a more comprehensive, inclusive and useful conception of creativity may result from the consideration of the four dimensions of the framework and their interactions. We wonder; is it time for a new Business Ba-Haus?

Creative climate: a critical success factor for 21st century organisations

Organisations often fail to recognise the internal factors that lead to better strategy development and facilitate implementation thereby increasing business performance. The critical success factors of creative culture, learning orientation (LRN), entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation (MKT) and organisational flexibility can be as important to performance as external factors such as the economy or competition. This paper takes a holistic perspective and examines the relationships between these factors and performance. All five of these factors are highly correlated with each other and with organisational performance. As a whole, the factors account for 30% of the variation of organisational performance. In addition, the study demonstrated the moderating effects of creative climate with LRN and its minimal moderating effects with MKT.

Shaping Environments Conductive to Creativity

A great deal of research on creativity is based on the principle of intrinsic motivation, which underlies creative performance and mediates the effects of contextual factors on employee creativity. Using a sample of Chinese employees from hotel industry, this study’s findings support the intrinsic motivation principle. This study applies the self-determination theory to model and examine intrinsic motivation and shows that a sense of autonomous motivation among employees plays a significant role in predicting employee creativity. Factors that promote creativity through autonomous motivation include a climate for creativity, empowering leadership, and coworker support. On the other hand, both task and personal conflict were negatively related to autonomous motivation. A controlling or coercive management style characterized by a focus on punishment, obligations, or external standards appears to be antithetical to employee creativity.

Assessing the Climate for Creativity (KEYS): Confirmatory factor analysis and psychometric examination of a Taiwan version

Understanding the feasibility of using KEYS to assess the organizational climate for creativity in non‐Western societies is essential for researchers studying cultural influences on workers' perceptions of workplace climates. This study reports on the effectiveness of translating KEYS, using data from 401 employees of 13 different companies in Taiwan. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed and its results indicated a satisfactory fit for a 10‐factor model. However, six items tackling environmental obstacles had low factor loadings (<0.3) and should either be eliminated or amended. The results raise questions regarding the role of cultural influences in international studies that assess creativity climates. Further research into the conceptualization of organizational creativity in Chinese societies is warranted.

New job – new ideas: the relationship between tenure and perceived creative climate

Human resource development (HRD) practices are intertwined with organizational creative climate (CC). Understanding the factors that influence CC is important since CC influences not only employees' possibilities to share and develop ideas, but also potentially employees' decision to leave their current organization. This study focuses on how perceptions of CC is related to tenure in organizations by analysing perceived CC in a random sample of unionized Swedish white-collar workers (n = 1303). It finds tenure to be negatively related to perceived CC for the first few years of employment. The level of knowledge required for a position does not moderate this relationship, but more knowledge-intensive work in itself tends to be associated with higher levels of perceived CC. Implications for HRD are discussed.

Creative Climate: A Leadership Lever for Innovation

AbstractThe working atmosphere within an organization has an important influence on its level of innovative productivity. Organizational leaders influence innovative productivity as well as the climate for creativity and innovation. This exploratory study included 140 respondents from 103 different organizations, 31 industries, and 10 countries, all of whom completed an online survey focused on examining the intervening nature of the climate for creativity and innovation. First, those who perceived more leadership support for innovation had significantly better creative climate scores. Second, those who perceived higher levels of innovative productivity also had better climate scores. Finally, organizational climate as an intervening variable between leadership behavior and innovation was confirmed through partial correlation and mediation analysis. The findings of this study support the pivotal role that creative climate plays between leadership behavior and innovative productivity.

Validação da escala clima para criatividade em sala de aula

O objetivo deste estudo foi adaptar e validar a Escala sobre o Clima para Criatividade em Sala de Aula para alunos da 5ª série do ensino fundamental. O instrumento foi aplicado em 504 alunos de escolas públicas e particulares do Distrito Federal, a fim de se avaliar o clima de sala de aula na disciplina de língua portuguesa e de matemática. Os resultados da análise fatorial confirmatória indicaram três dimensões associadas ao clima de sala de aula para criatividade: estímulo do professor à criatividade, autopercepção do aluno sobre características criativas e motivação do aluno para aprendizagem. Os valores de alfa de Cronbach oscilaram entre 0,69 e 0,88. Conclui-se que o modelo de três fatores é adequado, e, portanto, a escala pode ser utilizada para pesquisa e avaliação do quanto o clima de sala de aula favorece o desenvolvimento da criatividade.

Knowledge-based urban development paradigm: Doha asa model for a knowledge and creative city in the Middle East

Abstract Qatar's future vision, named Qatar 2030, is forecasting an economy based on knowledge and creativity rather than depletable natural carbon resources. Knowledge and creativity are perhaps the most important factors in the future of a city's economy, and there is a growing interest in the concept of the “knowledge and creative city”. A knowledge and creative city is not just a regular city. It is a growing space of exchange and optimism in which each and everyone can devote themselves to personal and collective projects and aspirations in a climate of dynamism, harmony, and creativity. The main purpose of this research is to explore the ‘knowledge city’ concept in depth. It will discuss the principles of a knowledge city, and portray its distinguishing characteristics and processes. A solid argument will be constructed to illustrate that the concept of knowledge cities is rooted in the urban, cultural structure of traditional Arab cities. Therefore an attempt to foster this concept in today's Arab/Middle Eastern cities would not be possible by building isolated technological statements scattered around the city. Alternatively, the rise of the network society, global networks, linked cities and the existence of smart communities should construct the basis for shaping Arab Knowledge Cities. A focus on Doha as an emerging knowledge and creative city amid the Middle Eastern cities will be included to examine the main hypothesis of the research. ‘What are the qualities of future cities?’ becomes a crucial question and its answer creates a challenge for architects, urban designers, planners, developers, and decision makers around the world. This research will answer this question by articulating a new matrix for knowledge and creative city formation. Doha will be used as a model for such a new paradigm of knowledge-based urban design and development in the Middle East. The Middle Eastern cities are not only exceptions, but would require major social transformations to join the knowledge economy era.

The Effects of Creative Climate on the Regional Economic Growth and the Total Factor Productivity of Korean Firms -A Panel Study of Electric and Electronic Firms of the Industrial Complex-

The Effects of Creative Climate on the Regional Economic Growth and the Total Factor Productivity of Korean Firms -A Panel Study of Electric and Electronic Firms of the Industrial Complex-

Promoting kindergarten children’s creativity in the classroom environment in Jordan

This study aimed at investigating teachers’ classroom practices, which either stimulate or inhibit the development of the creative environment of classrooms in Jordan, and determining the differences between practices according to educational level, experience level and type of teaching. The sample of the study consisted of 215 kindergarten teachers. A five‐dimensional questionnaire consisting of 50 items was developed to achieve the study aims. The results revealed that the rating of teachers’ practices that encourage creativity in children was satisfactory for the domains of physical environment and educational materials, lesson planning and creative instructional practices. In addition, teachers’ rating lies in the category of ‘good’ for the domains of knowledge and awareness of creativity, and creative classroom climate. Moreover, the results showed that there were statistically significant differences due to the type of teaching in favour of the cooperative method, and due to the educational level in favour of postgraduates, while no statistically significant differences were found due to experience level. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations were suggested.