Journal of Management 2004 30(6) 933–958

The Effects of Personal and Contextual

Characteristics on Creativity: Where
Should We Go from Here?
Christina E. Shalley∗
College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, 800 West Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Jing Zhou
Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA

Greg R. Oldham
Department of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 270 Wohlers Hall,
1206 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA

Received 3 March 2004; received in revised form 14 June 2004; accepted 15 June 2004
Available online 14 July 2004

This article systematically reviews and integrates empirical research that has examined the per-
sonal and contextual characteristics that enhance or stifle employee creativity in the workplace.
Based on our review, we discuss possible determinants of employee creativity that have received
little research attention, describe several areas where substantial challenges and unanswered
questions remain, present a number of new research directions for theory building, and identify
methodological improvements needed in future studies of creativity in organizations.
© 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Considerable evidence now suggests that employee creativity can substantially contribute
to organizational innovation, effectiveness, and survival (Amabile, 1996; Nonaka, 1991).
When employees exhibit creativity at work, they produce novel, potentially useful ideas
about organizational products, practices, services or procedures (Shalley & Gilson, 2004).
The presence of these creative ideas increases the likelihood that other employees will
apply the ideas in their own work, further develop the ideas, and then transfer them to
other individuals in the organization for their own use and development. It is the use and
development of creative ideas that allows the organization to adjust to shifting market

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 404 894 4922; fax: +1 404 894 6030.

E-mail addresses: christina.shalley@mgt.gatech.edu (C.E. Shalley), jzhou@rice.edu (J. Zhou),

g-oldham@uiuc.edu (G.R. Oldham).

0149-2063/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jm.2004.06.007