Creativity in Organizations

Creativity can be repressed by several organizational conditions. Among them will be emphasis in intrinsic motivation and punishing failures. Leaders that do not permit their employees to participate in the decision making process and who do not have good relations with their followers hinder individual creativity. Moreover, leaders who do not offer supportive supervision inhibit creativity. When employees feel that their mistakes are going to be harshly criticized with possible serious consequences for their careers then their willingness to be creative is diminished. When employees feel that their errors are analyzed with encouraging feedback and educational information then creativity is increased.

Creativity is affected negatively when organization don’t promote internal diversity and don’t set an environment where there is a free interchange of ideas among the employees. A close controlling supervision will limit creativity. An organization cannot support creativity if it doesn’t support “risk-taking” by its employees. Workers need to have autonomy to explore new ideas and processes. Furthermore organizations that do not recognize and reward creativity hold back this process. They are sending the message that creativity is unimportant and not a desire trait. Finally extreme job pressures and workloads are great creativity killers as they do not aloud employees to use their mental energy and time in the creative process.

Reference

Kolb, D. A., Osland, J. S., Turner, M. E., & Rubin, I. M. (2007). Organizational behavior: An experiential approach (8th ed.). Prentice-Hall.