Theory Hand-In

Creativity and
Innovation

PAPER WITHIN Leading and Organizing innovation work

AUTHOR: Nadeeka Erandathi Rathnayake Berglund
TUTOR: Tomas Müllern
JÖNKÖPING 12.2023
Summary of articles/readings

Amabile, T.M. (1988). A Model of Creativity and Innovation within an organization explores the
interplay between individual creativity and the organizational environment in innovation. The
research aims to examine the individual attributes that are enhancing and diminishing the
innovations within an organization.
Based on the individual attributes that influence innovation the scholars have presented the
necessity of a model of individual creativity. Thus, the research has explored the qualities of the
environment that are enhancing and diminishing organizational innovations. Considering both
individual and environmental level factors the researcher has formed a model for organizational
innovation.

Lee, A., Legood, A., Hughes, D., Tian, A.W., Newman, A. & Knight, C. (2020). Leadership,
Creativity, and Innovation: a Meta-Analytic Review gives a comprehensive overview of meta-
analytic review on the relationship between leadership styles and followers’ creative and innovative
outcomes. The research found 13 leadership and their relationship with creativity and innovation,
as Certainly, here are the 13 leadership behaviors mentioned in the provided content:
transformational leadership, transactional leadership, ethical leadership, authentic leadership,
servant leadership, humble leadership, empowering leadership, entrepreneurial leadership, LMX
(Leader-Member Exchange), supportive leadership, benevolent leadership, authoritarian
leadership and destructive leadership. The research has explored that some leadership styles have
highly engaged in innovation while some leadership styles showed less involvement. Thus, the
research has presented the moderator involvement in the relationship between leadership and
employee creativity and innovation.

The article "Innovation and Creativity in Organizations explores, definitions, theories, research
approaches, methodologies, critique, and future directions in understanding and optimizing an
organization’s creativity and innovation.
Researchers have used 6 theories and models,
The researchers have analyzed the different factors impacting creativity and innovations within
an organization. There they have conducted four levels of analysis; individuals analysis, team-level
analysis, organizational analysis and multilevel analysis. The authors emphasize the importance of
creativity and innovation in the workplace and highlight the need for further research in this. The
articles emphasize the need for more integrative frameworks to explore factors affecting creativity
and innovation across multiple levels of analysis, as well as the need for further research in areas
such as the negative consequences of innovation, the role of senior management teams, and the
influence of customers on employee creativity.

Theoretical highlights and `comparison of articles and reading

Amabile’s model has explored the individual level and organizational( environmental) level factors
that are enhancing and diminishing organizational innovation Factors that encourage leadership
are traits, self-motivation, special cognitive abilities, risk orientation, expertise in the area, group
dynamics, diverse experience, social skills, brilliance, and naiveté, thus inhibiting factors are lack
of motivation, unskillfulness, inflexibility, external motivation, and social unskillfulness. Amabile

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has presented the factors that enhance innovation organizational level as Freedom, Good Project
Management, Sufficient Resources, Encouragement, Organizational Characteristics favoring
innovation, Recognition, Time, Challenge, and self-generated Pressure thus, diminishing factors
including Organizational Characteristics hindering innovation, Constraints, Organizational
Disinterest, Poor Project Management, Evaluation issues, Insufficient Resources, Time Pressure,
Status Quo emphasis, and internal Competition. Analyzing both levels’ impact on innovation she
has presented three factors essential for creativity,

The meta-analysis found that leadership styles such as authentic, empowering, and entrepreneurial
were strongly associated with creative performance. Additionally, supportive leadership was
partially associated with creative performance. The research also revealed that the relationship
between leadership variables and creativity/innovation was influenced by several factors that
researchers have presented as moderators. Moderators included the
National culture in which the studies were conducted, the industry context, and the gender of the
followers. These moderators were explored to understand their impact on the strength of the
relationship between different leadership styles and creativity/innovation.

Andersson et al, 2014 dig into understanding and enhancing organizational creativity and
innovation, employing six key theories and models.
The analysis is conducted across four levels: individual, team, organizational, and multilevel,
examining different factors influencing creativity and innovation within an organization. At the
individual level, it focused on factors such as traits, goal orientations, job complexity, leadership,
social networks, and psychological states. Team-level analysis explained structure, diversity,
climate, leadership, and management factors. Thus, at the organizational level, it explored
knowledge utilization, structure, strategy, culture, external environments, innovation diffusion, and
corporate entrepreneurship. The multilevel analysis claimed the impact of autonomy support, team
structures, climate, national R&D activity, and identity comprehension on innovation at individual
and team levels.

Takeaway/Major learnings from the articles/readings

Merging the insights from Amabile’s 1988 model with Lee et al, 2020’s and Anderson et al, 2014,
we can investigate the importance of individual attributes in organizational innovation and
creativity. The study of Lee et al 2020 explains how leadership behaviors influence innovation and
creativity while Anderson et al 2014 emphasize the influence of individual attributes in innovation.

Thus, the Amabile, 1988 has given a lot of weight on organizational environmental impact on
creativity and innovation while Anderson et al 2014 has stretched their research to emphasize the
environmental/organizational level impact on creativity and innovation. The researchers have
considered the leadership dynamics and organizational dynamics after the organizational
innovation.
Throughout all three researches it emphasizes the collaboration of individual level and
organizational level is essential to lead innovation.
One of another important key fact is the influence of leadership behavior in innovation.
According to the meta-analysis, leadership plays a pivotal role in innovation. Thus these

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frameworks are worth adopting for the organizations who are willing to lead through innovation
and creativity.

Word count 877

Reference
Amabile, T.M. (1988). A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations. Research in Organizational
Behavior. Vol. 10, pp 123-167.

Anderson, N., Potocnik, K. & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and Creativity in Organizations: A State-of-the-
Science-Review, Prospective Commentary, and Guiding Framework. Journal of Management. Vol. 40, 5, pp 1297-
1333.

Lee, A., Legood, A., Hughes, D., Tian, A.W., Newman, A. & Knight, C. (2020). Leadership, Creativity and
Innovation: a Metaanalytic Review. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. Vol. 29,1, pp 1-
35.