| This qualitative research study involved interviews with respondents from a mid-west Advertising Agency and a mid-west State Rehabilitation Agency and examined individuals' stories of successful and unsuccessful attempts of using creativity at work. Creativity was defined in this study as a novel product, service, or process which successfully addressed a work-related problem. This study differed significantly from the existing creativity research literature by addressing a lower level of creativity, addressing failed attempts at creativity as well as successful ones, and addressing how individual-based creativity unfolds in an organizational context.; One findings of this study is that, in both organizations, co-workers were more likely to dispute the creativity of another person's idea or product than to dispute the effectiveness of that idea or product. A second major finding is that the respondents described themselves as collaborating with others within and outside the organization to craft and implement their creative ideas.; Organizational-level factors have a greater impact on idea generation and the creative process at work than individual-level factors. The most common organizational-level factors attributed with hindering creative efforts were workload, the goals/type of organization, and organizational features including formalization and production. |
