Amabile harvard business school february 10, 1996 chapter to appear in n. These are challenge, freedom, resources, workgroup features, supervisory encouragement, and organizational support. History of creativity research 4 closely identified with creativity murray, 1989. How creativity works in the brain makes a compelling case for investing in the interdisciplinary research needed to understand, measure and foster creativity. Teaching creativity and inventive problem solving in science. Amabile brandeis university this study directly tested the hypothesis that intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity and extrinsic motivation is detrimental. Within this chapter, we consider the dynamic definition of creativity within a practical context, with roots in psychological measurement. A discussion of some of the existing measures of creativity is provided, with an attempt to assimilate them to the dynamic definition of creativity, as proposed by corazza creat res j 28. Organizational creativity is defined as the creation of a valuable, useful new product. You must there are over 200,000 words in our free online dictionary, but you are looking for one thats only in the merriamwebster unabridged dictionary.
The author states that the real murderer is the work environment itself established due to various factors, that the teresa m. Creativity meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. How to kill creativity keep doing what youre doing. Runco and others published the standard definition of creativity find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. The cat is rooted in a consensual operational definition of creativity. Pdf perspective on the social psychology of creativity.
For most of my life, i didnt consider myself to be particularly creative. However, the focus on motivation identified by xu and rickards has also been central to the work of teresa amabile see especially, 1996a, the most widely cited theorist within discussions of managing creativity in the field of conventional management. The componential theory of creativity is a comprehensive model of the social and psychological components necessary for an individual to produce creative work. Creativity can also be defined as a social phenomenon that is defined according to social norms and is facilitated or inhibited by social factors. Or, if you want to spark innovation, rethink how you motivate, reward, and assign work to people. Creativity is nothing more than seeing and acting on new relationships thereby bringing them to life. The theory is grounded in a definition of creativity as the production of ideas or outcomes that are both novel and appropriate to some goal. Teresa amabiles model of creativity managing media.
Creativity is viewed as the production of something that is novel, original, and innovative. To appear in encyclopedia of management theory eric h. Amabile is primarily known for her research and writing on creativity, dating to the late 1970s. The occasion was art class, a weekly friday afternoon event during which we were. Creativity is not a personality trait available to only a few. Teresa amabiles model of creativity managing media firms. Some theories of affect suggest that creativity may be particularly susceptible to affective influence, mainly because positive affect leads to the sort of cognitive variation that stimulates creativity clore, schwarz, and conway, 1994. Like the affective consequences of creative thinking, these simultane ous feelings may not last long enough to be evident in longi tudinal analyses. First, creativity is defined as the production of new and useful ideas or solutions amabile, 1983a, b. Mastering creativity, 1st edition this guide is free and you are welcome to share it with others. The challenge lies partially in the nature and definition of creativity itself. A model of creativity and innovation in organizations mit. Assessing the work environment for creativity teresa m. The social psychology of creativity teresa amabile springer.
Mihaly csikszentmihalyi, teresa amabile, michael west and claudia sacramento. For the purposes of media management research, i suggest that amabile s model may be operationalised using contextual proxy measures of creativity. A master class is daniel golemans firstever comprehensive video series that examines the best practices of topperforming executives. Amabile harvard business school to appear in encyclopedia of management theory eric h.
Componential theory of creativity working paper harvard. Creativity is generally defined as the production of novel, use ful ideas. From cambridge english corpus because the two artists display creativity in such different fields, however, it would be mistaken to judge them to be equally creative. Creativity exists in less famous, more humble, examples as well. It refers to both the process of idea generation or problem solving and the actual idea or solution amabile, 1983. For a variety of reasons, both the popular creativity tests and the subjective assessment techniques used in some previous creativity studies are illsuited to social psychological studies of creativity. The obvious answer is that v 0 if otherwise, then we must get irrational suppression rather than creativity ergo, the standard definition is untenable, period. Entrepreneurial creativity has been defined as the generation and implementation of novel, appropriate ideas to establish a new venture amabile 1997. The dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation in organizations. Amabile is the author of the progress principle, creativity in context, and growing up creative, as well as over 150 scholarly papers, chapters, case studies, and presentations.
I didnt play a musical instrument or even know how to read music. Creativity definition in the cambridge english dictionary. Value can be economic, social, psychological, or aesthetic. Amabile is dedicated to the problem of organizations unintentionally killing one of their main assets over and over every day.
It is embodied by individuals with a broad range of personal characteristics and. The dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation in. Fostering creativity in creative environments contemporary. Pdf componential theory of creativity semantic scholar. Amabile s research originally focused on individual creativity and has since expanded to encompass team creativity and organizational innovation. Theories of creativity before i am able to explain several of the leading theories of creativity, one must understand a confusing intricacy surrounding this topic of study. Teresa amabile is an accomplished speaker in the field of business management, educating and inspiring audiences with lectures, workshops, and interactive discussions. The performers creativity is engaged as she navigates the various materials of the score in response to the moment of performance. The inaugural issue of psychology of creativity, aesthetics and the arts, a publication of apa division 10, came in 2007.
Creative thinking refers to how people approach problems and solutions their capacity to put existing ideas together in new combinations. His work served as a pioneering agent in creativity research and development in describing the creative process, the research supported several studies. Amabile s 1996 a product or response will be judged as creative to the extent that a it is both a novel and appropriate, useful, correct, or valuable response to the task at hand, and b. Alternative forms of fit in contingency theory robert drazin. With time, the term was taken to indicate the persons special talents or aptitudes. Perspectives on the social psychology of creativity. From this point of view, creativity may be displayed by individuals, but innovation occurs in the organizational context only. In his evolutionary theory of creative thinking, simonton. One limitation of this study was the use of creativity ratings at the individual level that did not match those at the. While there are many definitions of innovation, it is defined here very simply. Amabile, department of psychology, brandeis univer. However, most theorists and researchers adopt a creativity definition focused on.
Resolving this problem is a broader challenge for the field of creativity research and may require the development of a generally agreed definition of creativity. The ideas presented in this book have been incubating for over 25 years. Teresa amabile s model of creativity managing media. Creativity is generally defined as the production of novel, useful ideas or problem solutions. Instructions to the nominating managers defined creativity as. According to the standard definition of creativity runco, 2012, widely adopted, creativity is an ability to discover something new, to adapt the available knowledge purposefully and solve the. Amabile proposed a componential model for creativity. In this theory, four components are necessary for any creative response. The componential theory of creativity is a comprehensive model of the social and psychological components. How differences in the social environment surrounding task. Thomas kalil, deputy director, white house office of science and technology policy as far as i know, how creativity works in the brain is the best. Then, the relationship between creativity and imagination is submitted. Sep 30, 2019 definition from wiktionary, the free dictionary. Abstract the componential theory of creativity is a comprehensive model of the social and.
That publication was supplemented in 1988 by the creativity research journal. The componential theory of creativity was articulated by teresa amabile in 1983. Creativity, the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form. Anderson has defined creativity as nothing more than going beyond the current boundaries, whether those are boundaries of technology, knowledge, current practices, social norms, or beliefs. The nature and form of the affect creativity relationship positive affect and creativity. I was in the first grade, i believe, when the ideas that eventually developed into this social psychology of creativity first began to germinate. A number of personality characteristics have been shown to be associated with creative productivity. Teresa amabile quotes author of the progress principle. A considerable research literature has identified intrinsic motivation as the form of motivation that is most closely associated with creativity amabile, 1996. Amabile definition is tender, gentleused as a direction in music. This component called intrinsic motivation is the one that can most immediately be influenced by the work environment. Appropriate observers are those familiar with the domain in which the product was created or the response articulated. Manual of the american psychological association 2nd edition and the guidelines for.
Motivating creativity in organizations semantic scholar. Resources for creativity expertise domainrelevant skills, knowledge, talents creativity skills playfulness, breaking set, independence, tolerance for ambiguity, questioning attitude, noveltyseeking, analogies and connections, model building, concentration task motivation intrinsic, selfefficacy amabile 1997 creativity. Creativity, the production of new and useful ideas by individuals or teams, can appear in many forms and many functions within firms of all kindsfrom entrepreneurial startups to wellestablished enterprises. Broad, complex and multifaceted, creativity can take many forms and can be found within a variety of contexts. The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether its in the arts, sciences, or business. Illustrations of prior definitions threecriteria definitions bodens 2004 novel, valuable, and surprising us patent offices new, useful, and nonobvious cf.
The model embraces four interdependent variables, consisting of the person, process, product and press. This note describes the varieties of creativity in organizations, and dispels common myths about what creativity is. She serves on the editorial boards of creativity research journal, creativity and innovation management, and the journal of creative behavior. Teresa amabile is the edsel bryant ford professor of business administration and a director of research at harvard business school. What is different about the study of creativity is that in other fields of research the newest theory often replaces the older theories. Amabile born june 15, 1950 is an american academic who is the edsel bryant ford professor of business administration in the entrepreneurial management unit at harvard business school. While, according to some authors, creativity is usually associated with the generation of new ideas as an. The relationship between individual creativity and team. The working definition of creativity used in this paper. On doing what you love and loving what you do teresa m. Amabile a rthur schawlow, winner of the nobel prize in physics in 1981, was once asked what, in his opinion, made the difference between highly creative and less creative scientists. Effects of motivational orientation on creative writers teresa m. A theory designed to be comprehensively useful for both psychological and organizational creativity research, it describes the creative process and the various influences on the process and its outcomes.
The philosophy of creativity berys gaut university of st andrews abstract this paper surveys some of the central issues in the philosophy of creativity and argues that an adequate treatment of them requires attention to the rich psychological literature on creativity. Thinking imaginatively is one part of creativity, but two others according to the author, are also essential. Amabile when i consider all the organizations i have studied and worked with over the past 22 years, there can be no doubt. Moreover, the concept and related empirical studies of play and creativity are presented. Grossman brandeis university three studies were conducted to examine the effects of reward on childrens and adults creativity.
At the same time, the product or the idea should be useful, relevant, and appropriate to the engaged. The two main resources that affect creativity are time and money. This is the basis of the consensual definition of creativity amabile, 1982. Creativity a the section contains chapters by some giants of recent creativity and innovation research. Amabile suggests that key aspects of creative thinking are. Amabile addresses the conflict between creativity and management by connecting the problems of facilitating creativity with the critique of the impact of bureaucratic management on motivation. Creativity and innovation in organizations background note. This would be consistent with the workplace definition of creativity offered by amabile and her coworkers. A product or response is creative to the extent that appropriate observers independently agree it is creative. The modern definition of creativity has broadened from a focus on esthetics towards practical products in science, technology, or business, and away from creation of beauty towards overcoming.
Creativity is characterised by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. She has worked with groups as small as 15 and as large as several thousand, in forprofit businesses, nonforprofit organizations, and a variety of associations. All emphasise how the community in which a person operates affects creative and innovative outcomes. These data cover topics such as motivation, emotion, work environment, creativity, and productivity. The social psychology of creativity teresa amabile. Through these varieties of viewpoints, creativity is typically seen as the basis for innovation, and. This definition sits alongside much entrepreneurship literature on new venture formation hisrich 1992. Like matching people with the right assignments, deciding how much time and. Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality.
Amabile, department of psychology, brandeis university, waltham, massachusetts, 02254. Motivation, amabiles componential theory, kingdom of saudi arabia. Both creativity and innovation involve the generation of novel ideas, yet the two concepts are not identical. According to roman mythology, each individual was born with a guardian spirit who watched out for the persons fate and distinctive individuality. Woo and daellenbach 1994, but fails to follow the growth of the business over time.