...Support–or Not Q&A with: Teresa Amabile Published: May 31, 2004 Author: Martha Lagace What does a team leader do so that employees know they are being supported? A Q&A with HBS professor and creativity expert Teresa Amabile about new research. team leader. This led us to delve more deeply into the different types of leader behaviors that appeared, and to look at how those specific behaviors influenced people's perceptions of leader support and, ultimately, their creativity. What do leaders do to make employees in creative functions feel supported or not? That was one of the research questions posed by Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and colleagues in what has turned into a penetrating study of creativity in organizations. By analyzing nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from employees working on creative projects—everything from making a new high-strength fabric to developing a database for a global hotel chain—they were able to chart how and why team leaders have enormous impact, positive or negative, on creativity. Amabile et al.'s findings were published in the February issue of The Leadership Quarterly as "Leader Behaviors and the Work Environment for Creativity: Perceived Leader Support." Amabile, an influential scholar on creativity, conducted the research with Elizabeth A. Schatzel, Giovanni B. Moneta, and Steven J. Kramer. She recently discussed their findings with HBS Working Knowledge. Q: You make the point that you...
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...Creativity Research Journal 2005, Vol. 17, No. 1, 51–65 Copyright © 2005 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Feeling Creative, Being Creative: An Empirical Study of Diversity and Creativity in Teams Terri R. Kurtzberg Rutgers University ABSTRACT: Two empirical studies explored objectively measured creative fluency and subjectively perceived creativity in cognitively diverse teams. Results indicate that cognitive diversity may be beneficial for objective functioning but may damage team satisfaction, affect, and members’impressions of their creative performance. Subjective ratings diverged greatly from more objective measures and were more closely related to affective measures. The overall findings present creativity as a complex multidimensional construct, and cognitive diversity as an important predictor of both team emotions and outcomes. Arguments are presented for the value of subjectively perceived creativity, even in the absence of more concrete performance in the immediate time period. The concept of creativity spans a multitude of domains from art to science to literature to business and beyond (e.g. Stumpf, 1995; Tang & Leonard, 1985; Williams & Yang, 1999). Even within any one context, researchers have long recognized that creativity can refer to person, process, product, or environmental response (Rhodes, 1961). At one count, there were well over 50 definitions to be found on this ever-expanding list (Taylor, 1988). It is easy to understand, given this wide...
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...Be Forewarned, I’m employing a hackneyed cliche to illustrate my point, children are our future. In order to create a brighter future for children, they will need the proper training. In Chapter 7 “Feeling Better”, Sir Ken Robinson discussed how it is essential for schools to focus on the emotional development of a child and not just the intellectual development. That children learning how to empathize with others early on is instrumental in how they handle relationships after they are adults. That in order for people to better understand others they would have to develop a better understanding of themselves. The question remains, what’s the best approach to ensure this? How can society secure its children’s futures without impeding them in other areas of life? A substantial amount of people believe in the value of school, that it’s the key to everything in life. This isn’t wrong, however, will it be enough for kids later in life and what are schools missing today that could cause an adverse reaction tomorrow? The answer is simple, creativity...
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...exotic destinations, carrying out painstakingly detailed observations, and producing thousands of pages of notes on those observations and his ideas for explaining them. It's inconceivable that his breakthrough would have occurred if he'd tried to rush it. In business, too, there are striking examples ofthe value of having relatively unstructured, unpressured time to create and develop new ideas. Scientists working at AT&T's legendary Bell Labs, operating under its corporate philosophy that big ideas take time, produced world-changing innovations including the transistor and the laser beam. Their ingenuity earned the researchers several Nobel prizes. They, like Darwin, had the time to think creatively. But we can all point to examples where creativity seemed to be sparked by extreme time pressure. In 1970, during Apollo 13's flight to the moon, a crippling explosion occurred on board, damaging the air filtration system and leading to a dangerous buildup of carbon dioxide in the cabin. If the system could not be fixed or replaced, the astronauts would be dead within a few hours. Back at NASA mission control in Houston, virtually all engineers, scientists, and technicians immediately focused their attention on the problem. Working with a set of materials identical to those on board the spacecraft, they desperately tried to build a filtration system that the astronauts might be able to replicate. Every conceivable...
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...would remain inadequate. They wanted us and a few other contractors to think “out of the box.” When I first became involved in the project, I suggested that Isaac Asimov, who was a good friend of mine, would be an appropriate person to participate. He expressed his willingness and came to a few meetings. He eventually decided not to continue, because he did not want to have access to any secret classified information; it would limit his freedom of expression. Before he left, however, he wrote this essay on creativity as his single formal input. This essay was never published or used beyond our small group. When I recently rediscovered it while cleaning out some old files, I recognized that its contents are as broadly relevant today as when he wrote it. It describes not only the creative process and the nature of creative people but also the kind of environment that promotes creativity. ON CREATIVITY How do people get new ideas? Presumably, the process of creativity, whatever it is, is essentially the same in all its branches and varieties, so that the evolution of a new art form, a new gadget, a new scientific principle, all involve common factors. We are most interested in the “creation” of a new scientific principle or a new application of an...
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...EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY Abstract: This paper is organized as follows. First we explain the theory on psychological empowerment and various leadership theories to develop a relationship between empowering leadership and employee creativity. Secondly it provides case studies to support the empowerment theories. We argue that the use positive psychology, specifically empowering leadership, contributes to employee success within an organization. The paper cites research by various highly esteemed professors and the primary sources were various internet articles, journals and websites. Introduction The use of positive psychology, originally proposed by Martin Seligman in his 1998 Presidential Address to the American Psychological Association, has been garnering support in recent studies. It focuses not on why people fail, but rather why they flourish and excel. Recent studies have shown that Empowering Leadership can affect employee creativity. By use of the word “creativity” we refer to the “out of the box’ ideas used in production and problem solving. Professor Alex Linley of the University of Leicester maintained that part of the empowering process calls for the leader to delegate authority which empowers the employee to make decisions and implement actions without direct supervision. This expression of confidence in the employee results in developing the employees feeling of self-efficacy which manifest “in four cognitions: meaning, competence...
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...our stimulation.” If one receives their flow of energy from themselves, then they can be classified as Introverted but if they rely on external sources then they are Extraverted. How we take in information deals with our preferred way of absorbing. Does one rely on their five senses to absorb information? Then this individual would be characterized as Sensing! If the individual relies solely on their instincts then they can be classified as Intuitive. The last two categories deal with how an individual makes decisions. If the individual is prone to making decisions based on logic and objective considerations then they are classified as Thinking but if they make decisions based on one’s personal value system then they are classified as Feeling (BSM Consulting, 2012). These six categories presented me with the classification of ENFP. I definitely agree with these results. According to the analysis and interpretation of my personality type, I am “people-oriented, creative, and highly optimistic” (Robbins, 2009), which I couldn’t agree more with! Individuals with this type of personality are often referred to as “The Inspirer” due to their enthusiastic, idealistic, and creative ideas. Also, this type of personality...
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...Inspiring Creativity in Next Generation “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while." ~ Steve Jobs As believed by late Sir Steve jobs creativity is just connecting things. If we are persuaded to believe the nuance it seems an uphill task to inspire the youth to be creative because connecting things requires endurance and persistence that appear to be missing in generation-Y owing to lack of wariness and lack of endurance to stay with one thing for a considerable long time. The question is how to keep them going with interest and passion. In fact the present youth does have passion but to reach to the top in a stipulated period of time may invite concomitant difficulties adversely affecting the creativity. Creativity relates to originality in thought while connecting things happening or probable of happening. Newton could connect things and thoughts to propound new theories. Actually all the things and thoughts were there. He only connected these with his creativity. A great musician composes by connecting a chain of unseen thoughts and things which becomes original. In every walk of life there is need for creativity. ‘Lateral Thinking’ introduced by Edward de Bono advocates for such creative thinking. In working scenario creativity in Marketing, creativity in Production, creativity in handling HR, and creativity...
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...I Believe Essay Expressing my creativity gives me a feeling of being alive and beautiful. Growing up I had a passion for fashion. I use to write stories about Tiny. As I got older, I started to write more realistic articles about fashion and I’d interview people about fashion. The creativity got stronger in my art collects and my ideas about fashion got stronger. I believe expressing my creativity is great way for me to show my genius creations. In 2007 when I was in third grade the art teacher, Mrs.Rother, had entered us in a contest about endangered species. The Endangered Species contest consisted of all of us drawing a postcard about an endangered species like an animal or a plant. I think there were four winners out of this. I remembered Mrs. Rother explained to us about this contest, it had an individual drawn picture on a postcard of an endangered species. Right of the bat I cried because I hated drawing. I put a lot of pressure on myself, I really wanted to win and do a good job. One of the endangered species was a Nuttall Oak leaf. I like leafs and flowers so I decided to do this leaf. I started tracing the leaf which turned out really big and the stems were crooked. However, I erased it and started over. My idea for this leaf was to combine colors you would see on a leaf and colors you might not see on a leaf together and make the colors heavy using colored pencils. Once I got done with my leaf I waited for the results. The announcements came on for the finalists...
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...well; allowing him to express his individuality. With both hands and nature, the author reveals the major theme of truth and ingenuity being revealed in the society. As seen in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the author uses multiple references to hands and nature, representing the central theme of revealing truth and creativity. Montag and other characters have multiple connections with hands throughout the novel, symbolizing his determination to shape...
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...Who Killed Creativity? When people hear the word creative there is an automatic assumption that creativity is completely linked to art. Based on this idea, many people with skills or interests that are not directly related to art usually say they are not creative. That is not entirely true. The ability to be creative is in each of us because creativity is not always related to the arts. Creativity is the ability to find new ways and new solutions to the same circumstances. Since we are children, we are curious beings by nature. We were born creative, imaginative, and with original ideas. Unfortunately, as we grow up, we lose that wonderful gift with which we are born. Why? Because education and creativity goes hand in hand. The education system kills the creativity of people...
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...Individual Reflective Essay At the foundation of our group for the tutorial presentation there were four members. Myself, Jonathon Kir, Gerald Loh and Qais. We all got along together well and exchanged phone numbers to communicate about the tutorial presentation. After discussing our work schedules we concluded that we would do our presentation on week 11. We also discussed the two case studies and decided on doing case study six ‘the challenges of my first job at ASACURA international’. I suggested we should also communicate with a Facebook group. The Facebook group allowed us to share ideas and upload our individual contributions efficiently. Similar to numerous organisations in Australia our group was made up of differing dynamics. Part of the challenge to the presentation was the different dynamics and personalities within the group. From the early stages of the organisational behaviour course I observed that Qais appeared to have personality traits that aligned with the neuroticism trait from the five factor model (Mckshane, 2013 44-45). Qais appeared anxious and seemed self-conscious, due to his lack of contribution to group discussions and shyness towards myself, Jonathon and Gerald. Qais rarely spoke to the group unless asked a question and I felt like it was quite difficult to judge how Quais felt on critical issues relating to the presentation as he did not contribute any alternate ideas, thus I found that I needed to make a greater effort and help Qais by encouraging...
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...Pixar Animation Studios is an American company and animation studio, founded in 1986. It has been award-winning for its computer animation technology. Pixar has mainly produced animated films for the Walt Disney Company. In January 2006, Pixar was bought by Disney and is today operating as a division of Walt Disney Pictures. They made their big breakhrough in 1995, with Toy Story, and ever since then they have produced critically acclaimed movies, such as The Incredibles, Cars, Monsters Inc, Wall-E and Finding Nemo. Pixar is a very interesting company to study when it comes to innovation, and many other companies can take lesson from them on how to be creative. After reading the book you can draw the conclusion that the major key factors to Pixar's success of creating a innovative environment are the leadership style and teamwork spirit. For people to be able to involve in processes that leads to innovation the following criteria are essential: problem understanding, seeing opportunities and the desire to do something. Connected to the desire to do something is the performance. There is much talk about skills and knowledge in society. But skilled employees is not the same as high-performing employees. To have high-performing employees the culture is of big importance, which Pixar has understood. The book discusses how the Pixar culture has been formed and how the employees, called the pixarians, work in the organization. As the title indicates, ”the world's most creative...
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...in 15 years. And Gallup recently reported that the majority of U.S. workers are not engaged in their work. Moreover, Gallup found that highly educated, middle-aged workers were among the least engaged. This is especially troubling, because these are the very workers who should be most productively, creatively involved in their work. The cost of employee disengagement is staggering. Gallup estimates that, in the U.S. alone, disengagement costs businesses over $300 billion annually in lost productivity. Over the past 15 years, we have studied engagement by looking deeply into what makes people happy, motivated, creative, and productive at work. To do this, we asked 238 members of creative teams to keep a work diary; by filling out a confidential electronic questionnaire we sent them each work day over the course of a project their team was doing. We selected participants from 26 teams in 7 companies across 3 industries. The daily questionnaire contained a number of scale-rated questions that asked about the participants’ feelings, thoughts, and drive at work that day. In addition, it asked them to describe one event that happened that day that stood out in their mind as relevant to their work or the project. In the end, we had nearly 12,000 daily reports. These diaries allowed us to examine what we call inner work life – the constant flow of perceptions, emotions, and motivations that people experience as they go through their work days. In essence, inner work life is day-by-day...
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...Is Consumerism Killing Our Creativity? by Jocelyn K. Glei Have you ever fallen into a black hole of comparison shopping? You’re looking for a new digital camera, for instance. You head over to Cnet.com and read some reviews of various cameras, watch the video demos, identify the model you want. Then perhaps you employ Google’s shopping search to price out the options and find the best deal. All of the sudden, it’s four hours later. You’ve found the perfect camera, but your purchasing triumph is tainted by a creeping feeling of, well, disgust. Couldn’t that time have been used better?I was thinking recently about what my biggest distractions were – the things keeping me from pushing my creative projects forward. As I scanned through my daily activities, I found that the most insidious distraction was, in fact, things. More specifically, the wanting, hunting, and getting of things – whether they be tangible (a new computer) or intangible (information). As Annie Leonard says in The Story of Stuff, “Our primary identity has become that of being consumers – not mothers, teachers, or farmers, but of consumers. We shop and shop and shop.” We love our stuff. Yet more than the stuff itself, we love the act of finding it – the search, the anticipation. But why is consumerism – and particularly, an online hunt for the ideal purchase – so addictive? It turns out that our consumerist impulse stimulates the same part of the brain that fires when we’re on the trail of a great...
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