Affect and creativity at work
Subtitle: a daily longitudinal test
By: Teresa M. Amabile ... [et al.].
Contributors: Harvard Business School. Division of Research
Series: Working paper / Division of Research, Harvard Business School -- 03-071; Working paper (Harvard Business School. Division of Research) -- 03-071
Publisher: Division of Research, Harvard Business School
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 56
Description: How does mood influence employee creativity? We address this question through a daily longitudinal field study of 222 employees in 7 companies in 3 industries. Although research on this question has previously been confined primarily to the psychological laboratory, this study uses daily real-time measures to track the relationship between the mood and creativity of employees as they work on creative projects. We find that positive mood predicts employee creative thinking, self-rated creativity, and peer-rated creativity. Moreover, lagged analyses suggest that positive mood leads to creativity; there was only weak evidence that creativity leads to positive mood. Although enduring positive dispositional affect independently predicts peer-rated creativity, the basic mood-creativity relationship holds even controlling for dispositional affect. These results have implications for theories of affective processes in organizational creativity and cognition, and practical ramifications for the management of creativity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.