| Search and replace. Send an e-mail. Send an e-file. Surf the Web. Technology is driving our lives today. It makes good sense, then, to nurture the technology worker, the individual whose creative output fuels life in the Information Age. This study explores the impact of the work environment on software designers. Its theoretical base comes from creativity theory (Amabile, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996; Barron, 1969; Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1990, 1996; Farr & Ford, 1990; Fritz, 1991; Guilford, 1950; Isaksen, 1987; Runco & Albert, 1990; Torrance, 1962, 1966, 1974, 1988), social psychology (Burrell & Morgan, 1979; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ekvall 1987, 1996; Gardner, 1983, 1993; Piirto, 1992), and technology and organizational culture (Bronson, 1999; Brooks, 1975, 1995; Cringeley, 1993; Dyson, 1998; Gates, 1995; Hiltzik, 1999; James, 1998; Kao, 1991; Yourdon, 1996), but the details come from the experiences of nine software designers. In in-depth interviews (two conducted “virtually”), the participants describe their understanding of the creative system and of those elements in the work environment that encourage or discourage creativity. Their words confirm traditional theory and extend it to the people who design software, the processes they use, and the products they create.;There is little research on the creativity of software designers or on the link between work environment and innovation. This study addresses that gap by broadening the definition of creativity to include people whose creativity is expressed in nontraditional ways and by examining—in their own words—the impact of the work environment on knowledge workers.;The findings here both confirm traditional creativity theory and expand it: Although software designers share many traditional creativity traits and processes, they rely more on domain knowledge and connections with their peers; they want to be recognized and included; and they need to see the product of their creativity used. That the product they create is both invisible and a work product may well explain both their focus on function and their reliance on extrinsic motivators. From these and other findings—and with the understanding that creativity is a system—the author has developed fifteen practical interventions, management imperatives, to help organizations promote creativity in the workplace. |
