9 Creativity in Organizations

In this chapter, I review contemporary theories and research on creativity in organizations. After discussing key definitional issues in this domain, I review the contemporary scholarly literature proceeding from the most molecular of perspectives focusing on within-individual processes to the more molar perspective of the collective creativity that can take place in work groups. While the within-individual process featured most prominently in the extant literature is intrinsic motivation, after a treatment of some fundamental issues surrounding the intrinsic motivation construct, I review research on conscious and unconscious thinking and positive and negative affect as key internal processes relevant to understanding creativity. Next, I focus on contextual influences on creativity including safety signals, creativity prompts, supervisors, leadership, and networks. Lastly, I focus on creativity in groups (from both an input and a process perspective). In closing, I reiterate a recurrent theme throughout the review. This is an exciting era for research on creativity in organizations with many intriguing questions awaiting future scholarly inquiry.