Creativity is good for you.
Rasulzada, F. & Dackert, I. (2009). Organizational creativity and innovation in relation to psychological well-being and organizational factors. Creativity Research Journal, 21(2–3), 191–198.
These authors examined the link between organizational creativity, innovation and employee well-being. They argue that enhancing creativity and innovation at work might benefit both the organization and the individual employee. In essence, employees in organizations that value creativity may be happier, more enthusiastic and more optimistic.
Factors that Contribute to Creativity
In their initial review, the authors identified several factors that can affect creativity and innovation within an organization:
• Creative organizational climate. Organizations seen as creative tend to be higher on the following dimensions: “challenge-motivation, freedom, idea-support, trust, dynamism, humour-playfulness, debate, conflict, risk taking, and idea-time” (p.192).
• Team climate. The authors recognize that most creativity occurs within the context of small groups or teams. Teams with shared vision, where team members feel safe, have a climate for excellence, and that have norms that support innovation are more likely to be creative.
• Leadership. The authors focused on transformational leaders and leaders who combine change-development and employee-relationship orientations as the types of leaders who are more likely to enhance creativity.
• Work resources and workload. The authors point out that “perceptions of the adequacy of resources (e.g., funds, people, facilities, and information) can affect people psychologically to engage in creative work” (p. 193). Further, excessive workload may affect creativity. Of note, the research appears divided as to whether high workload helps or hinders innovation.
The Results
Ninety-five employees at high-tech multinational firm completed questionnaires regarding well-being and the factors listed above. The authors had 2 questions they wanted to answer:
1) Based upon employee ratings, does higher perceived organizational innovation relate to higher feeling of personal well-being?
They found that employees who viewed the organization as creative and innovative have higher feelings of well-being. These employees reported more enthusiasm, as defined by high pleasure and high arousal.
2) Based upon employees ratings, does higher perceived organizational innovation relate to the factors listed above?
They found that creative organizational and team climate, change-employee oriented leadership, having higher work resources all related to viewing the organization as innovative. They found no relationship between workload and perceptions of creativity. Further analysis showed that organizational climate and having resources to do the work were the most important to viewing the organization as supporting innovation. With respect to resources, they note that “creativity, being a risk-taking behavior, requires a lot in terms of time, cognitive capacities, effort, and hard work, as well as material resources.” (p. 197).
The authors conclude noting that enhancing conditions for innovation can be beneficial to the organization by increasing its competitive advantage but also to the individual employee through increased feelings of well-being.
Practical Application: Innovative teams.
In this month's application, I want to focus on the results these researchers found when looking at team climate. I agree with the authors who note that most creative activity in organizations occurs at the team level. Also, positive leaders who have a more innovative or change-oriented leadership style may have more success at focusing on team climate since they may have less control over the organizational climate or allocation of resources. The following questions might help you promote innovation at your next team meeting or planning session:
1) Team Vision:
Is your vision clearly defined? Is your vision achievable? Does your team agree with the vision? Does your team value the vision? Does this vision support risk-taking in the form of innovation?
2) Team interactions:
Do team members feel safe on the team? Do they influence, interact and communicate with each other openly? Do members share information? Do you as a leader encourage their active participation in decisions?
3) Excellence:
Does your team focus on high quality work and team level excellence rather than personal ambitions? Does the team have a shared concern over doing an excellent job? Does the team see innovation as part of excellence?
4) Team Norms:
Does your team support new ideas, either by giving them full consideration (not ignoring or dismissing), verbally supporting innovation, or by volunteering time and resources to implement the idea? Is the team willing to have a new idea fail and possibly “waste” resources?
Finally, I want to note that creativity and innovation may not be desirable. As the authors indicate, innovation and creativity are a type of risk-taking. This means that positive leaders need to identify those aspects of their portfolio that can withstand risk. If I have a life threatening illness, and have exhausted all avenues of treatment, I might want an innovative and creative doctor to provide me with options. However, I would not want a physician who values innovation over doing what is best for my health and quality of life.
Leaders often grapple with the challenge of creativity: Balancing risk with reward. To navigate this challenge, we can: 1) decide what needs innovation because the current approach is not working; 2) provide a creative climate that allows for risk and possible failure; 3) give the innovation appropriate human and financial resources; and 4) assess whether the innovation is beneficial. It is this balancing act that positive leaders must consider when innovating and possibly improving the workplace. It is reassuring that these researchers indicate that creativity may benefit both the organization and the individual employee.
Copyright 2009 Positive Leadership Solutions-James Hill
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