Interactional Framework for Understanding Creativity

1. Interactional Framework for Understanding Creativity August 30, 2005

2. Introducing the Interactional Framework • Creativity: An idea that is both novel and useful (Amabile, 1983) • A single creative product (e.g. Post-It note) can reflect the efforts of: • A single individual. • Inputs from a social network. • An organizational context that influences the creative process. • Objective: To introduce an interactional framework that specifies different sources of creativity and how they interact with one-another.

3. Behavior Originates in the Individual • Dispositions: Tendencies to respond to situations, or classes of situations in a particular, predetermined manner (House, Shane & Herold, 1996). • Personality traits are seen as the most stable types of dispositions. • Example: OCEAN typology of personality. Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

4. Where do traits come from? • Research on twins suggests that many traits have genetic origins. • On average, genetic inheritance accounts for 50% of the variance in personality traits of identical twins reared together or apart. • Genetic inheritance can even explain work attitudes such as job satisfaction among identical twins reared apart. • Example: Genetics accounted for 31% of the variance in job satisfaction.

5. Personality is stable • Certain traits are very stable over time. • Example: Longitudinal study found that positive affectivity (happy people) in adolescence was positively associated with job satisfaction 50 years later. • Implication: “Happy” employees will be happy no matter how you treat them and vice-versa. • Improve morale through personnel selection.

6. Personality Predicts Organizational Outcomes • Need for achievement predicts level of education, job involvement, training and job delinquency over time (r = .24 to r = .35). • Extraversion a valid predict of performance in managerial and sales jobs (r = .14, to .18). • In sum: • Strong case for the importance of personality?

7. Behavior is Due to the Situation • The effects of personality traits are just a “mirage.” See Kenrick & Funder, Table 1 • Hurdles to “proving” the dispositional argument: • People must agree on personality assessments. • Know who is high versus low on a certain trait. • Stable personality does not reflect the impact of situational constraints.

8. The Reality of Conformity • Powerful situations “overwhelm” personalities • Consider a picnic versus a funeral. • What are the “rules” in each situation? • Where would you rather meet someone if you wanted to get to know them? • In which situation is behavior more “uniform?”

9. Organizations as Strong Situations • Social Information Processing theory of job attitudes suggest that people conform to the job views held by fellow employees. • Cult” like organizations can erase the effect of personality because pressure to conform is so powerful. • Example: Disney workers are told how to dress, how to behave, who to date! • Individuals’ personalities may even by changed by the organization. • Example: Exposure to oppressive working conditions may lead to neuroticism.

10. Compromise: An Interactional Approach • Basic principles of the interactional approach. • Both a purely “person” and “situation” based approach is incomplete. • Must take into account both sets of factors to accurately predict behavior. • Interactions are not simply additive. People and situations exert reciprocal influence.

11. 1. No “one size fits all” situation • Work situations do not affect everyone in the same way; some people’s behavior is consistent across varying situations. • People differ on the extent to which their behavior is shaped by the organization’s culture. • Example: Cooperative people are better able to adapt to organizational norms for either individualism or collectivism. • Some people are even consistently inconsistent! • Example: High Self Monitor

12. 2.Certain people can influence situations more than others. • Founders and charismatic leaders can change situations to their advantage or to suit their traits. • An organization’s culture can also be influenced by the entry and exit of its members. • Organizations with high turnover have a more fragmented culture.

13. 3. In life there is no random assignment • People do not select into situations randomly, but rather into situations in which they think their attitudes and behaviors will be appreciated. • Research on person-organization fit suggests that when (1) Personal values match (2) Organizational values then people are more satisfied, less likely to turnover and promoted more quickly (Chatman, 1991).

14. Creativity: Applying the Interactional Framework • Which personality traits predict creativity? • How do creative people think? • Can certain situations stimulate creativity while other situations kill it? • Can groups use shared norms and values to enhance group creativity? • How to the above factors interact to produce creativity in organizations?

15. On Thursday • The Case of/for Einstein’s Brain • Be prepared to discuss and apply the Interactional framework.