Incorporating Physiology into Creativity Research and Practice: The Effects of Bodily Stress Responses on Creativity in Organizations

In the modern workplace, employees are required to be creative under varying stress levels. In understanding the relationship between stress and creativity, organizational scholars and practitioners have largely focused on how stress affects cognition, but have overlooked the role of physiological responses to stress. The present paper draws on psychophysiological theories of stress to highlight that the effect of stress on creative performance critically depends on whether stress-inducing situations engender “challenge” physiological states (i.e., fluid physiological stress responses) or “threat” physiological states (i.e., constrictive physiological stress responses). We integrate extant physiological and organizational theories of stress into research on creativity, identify physiological stress responses as overlooked mechanisms that help explain why stress differentially affects creativity, and provide practical information about how organizational scholars can incorporate physiological measures into research on creativity.