Taking personal initiative and communicating about ideas: What is important for the creative process and for idea creativity?

Abstract

Using multisource data, this study focused on the process aspect of creativity at work. A modification of Amabile's (1988) stage model of the creative process with the stages of problem identification, preparation, idea generation, and idea validation served as the basis for our study. We examined personal initiative and idea-related communication as two important factors for the creative process and for the degree of creativity of one specific idea an employee recently produced at work. In a sample of 52 nurses, we found that idea-related communication was positively related to engagement in the creative process but not to idea creativity. Personal initiative boosted engagement in the beginning of the creative process and was positively related to creativity as an outcome. Results suggest that idea-related communication is important for showing engagement in the creative process, whereas personal initiative is important in the beginning of the creative process and for idea creativity.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Anneliese Westermann-Binnewies for help in data collection, especially for conducting the interviews. We would also like to thank Cornelia Niessen and Judith Volmer for comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

¹We thank an anonymous reviewer for referring to Cognitive Evaluation Theory.

²An additional table presenting factor loadings and total variance explained is available from the first author on request.

³Additional analyses and tables concerning mediation analyses are available from the first author on request.