Teresa M. Amabile

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.

Motivating creativity in organizations: On doing what you love and loving what you do

Creativity in all fields, including business, flourishes under intrinsic motivation—the drive to do something because it is interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging. This article presents the Componential Theory of Organizational Creativity and Innovation, which defines the factors—including intrinsic motivation—that determine a persons creativity. This article also shows how the work environment can influence individual creativity.

Affect and Creativity at Work

This study explored how affect relates to creativity at work. Using both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data from the daily diaries of 222 employees in seven companies, we examined the nature, form, and temporal dynamics of the affect-creativity relationship. The results indicate that positive affect relates positively to creativity in organizations and that the relationship is a simple linear one. Time-lagged analyses identify positive affect as an antecedent of creative thought, with incubation periods of up to two days. Qualitative analyses identify positive affect as a consequence of creative thought events, as well as a concomitant of the creative process. A preliminary theory of the affect-creativity cycle in organizations includes each of these links and proposes mechanisms by which they may operate.

Motivational synergy: Toward new conceptualizations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace

The foundation for a model of motivational synergy is presented. Building upon but going beyond previous conceptualizations, the model outlines the ways in which intrinsic motivation (which arises from the intrinsic value of the work for the individual) might interact with extrinsic motivation (which arises from the desire to obtain outcomes that are apart from the work itself). In a modification of the prevailing psychological view that extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation, this conceptualization proposes that certain types of extrinsic motivation can combine synergistically with intrinsic motivation, particularly when initial levels of intrinsic motivation are high. Such synergistic motivational combinations should lead to high levels of employee satisfaction and performance. Two mechanisms are proposed for these combinations: extrinsics in service of intrinsics, and the motivation-work cycle match. Personality and work-environment influences on motivation are discussed, and implications are outlined for management practice and management development.

The creative environment scales: Work environment inventory

Abstract: The Creative Environment Scales Work Environment Inventory (WEI) is a new paper‐and‐pencil instrument designed to assess stimulants and obstacles to creativity in the work environment. Unlike many instruments that are designed as comprehensive descriptions of the work environment, the WEI focuses on those factors in the work environment that are most likely to influence the expression and development of creative ideas. Designed to be used at any level within any function of an organization, the WEI is intended as an organizational development instrument to improve the climate for creativity. Conceptually grounded in previous empirical and theoretical work on creativity and innovation, the WEI has been administered to 645 respondents drawn from five different groups. Factor analyses, scale reliabilities (internal consistencies), and between/within scale correlations indicate a high degree of integrity in the WEI scales. Furthermore, test‐retest reliability is high. Preliminary validity analyses i...

Motivation and Creativity: Effects of Motivational Orientation on Creative Writers

This study directly tested the hypothesis that intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity and extrinsic motivation is detrimental. Chosen because they identified themselves as actively involved in creative writing, 72 young adults participated in individual laboratory sessions where they were asked to write 2 brief poems. Before writing the second poem, subjects in an intrinsic orientation condition completed a questionnaire that focused on intrinsic reasons for being involved in writing. Subjects in an extrinsic orientation condition completed a questionnaire that focused on extrinsic reasons. Those in a control condition were not given a questionnaire on reasons for writing. Although there were no initial differences between conditions on prior involvement in writing or on creativity of the first poems written, there were significant differences in the creativity of the poems written after the experimental manipulations. Poems written under an extrinsic orientation were significantly less creative than those written in the other two conditions. Implications for social-psychological and individual-difference conceptions of creativity are discussed.

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.

Motivation and creativity.

A popular stereotype of creative people is that they approach their work with a kind of crazed intensity, often forgoing sleep, food, and other seeming necessities of life in order to advance their creative work. Undoubtedly, this view is one source of the widespread belief that creativity stems from madness. Although the connection between creativity and insanity remains a controversial point, there is considerable anecdotal and empirical evidence that creative production does require a high level of motivation. For example, the novelist John Irving reported spending as many as 12 hours per day, for several consecutive days, while writing his novels. When asked what drove him to work so hard, even years after attaining wide readership, fame, and financial success, he replied: “The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that its not work for me” (from an interview reported in Amabile, 1989, p. 56). What motivation drives creative activity? Is it generally based in the love that Irving describes? Does it derive from the desire to attain ever more wealth and fame, or are there other motivational forces at work? This chapter reviews theory and research on the motivation for creativity, revealing that, although creativity can arise from a complex interplay of motivational forces, motivation that stems from the individuals personal involvement in the work - love, if you will - is crucial for high levels of creativity in any domain.

Academic-Practitioner Collaboration in Management Research: A Case of Cross-Profession Collaboration

We present a case of academic-practitioner research collaboration to illuminate three potential determinants of the success of such cross-profession collaborations: collaborative team characteristi...

Social influences on creativity: Evaluation, coaction, and surveillance

Abstract: Two experiments examined the effects of evaluation expectation and the presence of others on creativity. In both experiments, some subjects expected that their work would be evaluated by experts, and others expected no evaluation. Evaluation expectation was crossed, in each experiment, with the presence of others. In the first experiment, the presence of others was operationalized as coaction; half of the subjects worked individually in small groups, and the others worked alone. In the second experiment, the presence of others was operationalized as surveillance; half of the subjects believed they were being watched while working. In both studies, subsequent creativity ratings of subjects’ products were made by expert judges. Effects of evaluation expectation were consistently strong. On a verbal task in Study 1 and an artistic task in Study 2, creativity was lower in the groups expecting evaluation than those not expecting evaluation. Evidence for the social facilitation or social inhibition of...