Regina Conti

Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity

We describe the development and validation of a new instrument, KEYS: Assessing the Climate for Creativity, designed to assess perceived stimulants and obstacles to creativity in organizational work environments. The KEYS scales have acceptable factor structures, internal consistencies, test-retest reliabilities, and preliminary convergent and discriminant validity. A construct validity study shows that perceived work environments, as assessed by the KEYS scales, discriminate between high-creativity projects and low-creativity projects; certain scales discriminate more strongly and consistently than others. We discuss the utility of this tool for research and practice.

Changes in the Work Environment for Creativity During Downsizing

This study examined the work environment for creativity at a large high-technology firm hefore, during, and after a major downsizing. Greativity and most creativitysupporting aspects of the perceived work environment declined significantly during the downsizing hut increased modestly later; the opposite pattern was ohserved for creativity-undermining aspects. Stimulants and ohstacles to creativity in the work environment mediated the effects of downsizing. These results suggest ways in which theories of organizational creativity can he expanded and ways in which the negative effects of downsizing might he avoided or alleviated.

Time Flies: Investigating the Connection Between Intrinsic Motivation and the Experience of Time

The present study investigated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and the subjective experience of time passing. The Work Preference Inventory, which measures trait intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, was administered to 75 undergraduate participants. Measures of time awareness, time estimation, checking of time, and perceived speed of time were collected using the experience sampling method. Participants carried electronic schedulers for five days and completed questionnaires each time the scheduler sounded (eight times per day). Results showed that higher intrinsic motivation was associated with checking and thinking about time less often, a subjective experience of time passing more quickly, and more of a tendency to lose track of time. The experience of time awareness was accompanied by a subjective sense of time moving slowly, a tendency to overestimate the time, and a more negative affective experience. These findings suggest that time perception is an important dimension of motivational experience.

The Positive Impact of Creative Activity: Effects of Creative Task Engagement and Motivational Focus on College Students' Learning

This study assessed the effectiveness of engaging students in a creative activity on a topic as a means of encouraging an active cognitive set toward learning that topic area. This technique was examined in three motivational contexts. Before reading a short instructional passage, subjects completed either, a creative or a noncreative pretask and heard one of three sets of directions: task focused (emphasizing intrinsic involvement), test focused (emphasizing external evaluation), or task/test focused (previous two combined). After reading the passage, subjects answered questions assessing immediate retention, wrote a creative essay, and responded to a questionnaire assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Long-term retention was assessed 5 days later with a phone quiz. Creative task engagement was found to be an effective means of enhancing creativity (in the absence of evaluation expectation), intrinsic motivation, and long-term retention.

Environmental Determinants of Work Motivation, Creativity, and Innovation: The Case of R&D Downsizing

Innovation, even technological innovation, has a distinctly human face. It is a serious technological oversight to ignore the human side of innovation – the motivation driving those who create new technologies. In particular, it is important to consider the impact of the work environment surrounding these individuals, an environment that emerges from management attitudes toward technological progress and risk-taking. Such attitudes are likely to be significantly affected by major organizational change. In this chapter we consider the effects of the work environment on innovation and, in particular, the effects of organizational downsizing on the work environment for innovation. What happens to entrepreneurial, risk-taking activity among scientists and technicians during periods of turbulence? If there is an impact on such behaviors, it is likely that technological innovation itself will be affected as well. In chapter 3 in this volume, Garud, Nayyar, and Shapira treat technological oversights and foresights as consequences of choices by firms to invest or withhold investment in a particular technology. The focus is on risk-taking behavior by key managers in the firm. At a more microscopic level, however, the creation and development of new ideas for technological innovations depends on appropriate risk-oriented thinking among the inventors themselves. Garud, Nayyar, and Shapira briefly suggest that such behavior depends, at least in part, on the organizational environment that top management has established in the firm. This is the central thesis that we present here.

Compassionate Parenting as a Key to Satisfaction, Efficacy and Meaning Among Mothers of Children with Autism.

Two studies examine the role of compassionate and self-image parenting goals in the experience of mothers of children with autism. In Study 1, a comparison sample was included. Study 1 included measures of parenting goals, life satisfaction, family life satisfaction, parenting satisfaction, and meaning in life. Study 2 incorporated a measure of parenting efficacy. Study 1 showed that mothers of children with autism were higher than comparison mothers in compassionate parenting goals. In both studies, compassionate parenting predicted positive outcomes including higher parenting satisfaction (both studies), family life satisfaction, meaning in life (Study 1) and higher parenting efficacy (Study 2). These studies support the notion that compassionate parenting is a key to satisfaction for mothers of children with autism.