Manager and employee perceptions of factors that inhibit or enhance creativity in land-grant university communication units specializing in agricultural, home economics, youth, and community and natural resource development programs

The purpose of this study was to determine manager and employee perceptions of factors that inhibit or enhance creativity in land-grant university communication units specializing in agricultural, home economics, youth, and community and natural resource development programs.;A census was conducted of 66 communication unit managers, while a proportional stratified random sample was drawn of 260 communication unit employees. Data were collected by three mail questionnaires: two were developed by the researcher, while the third was a copyrighted instrument (the Work Environment Inventory).;Based on the findings of the study, the major conclusions are: (1) Communication units are predominantly located within Colleges of Agriculture and, on average, have 13 full-time employees. Unit managers must report to a number of superiors throughout the university system. (2) Job satisfaction levels tended to be high for both managers and employees. More managers perceive their workload as excessive than employees. (3) When compared with other managers and employees in a variety of public and private organizations, managers and employees of land-grant communication units have similar perceptions of enhancers and inhibitors to creativity in their work environment. (4) Communication unit managers tended to have more positive perceptions of creativity and productivity in their work environment, saw their work as more challenging, and their work group as more supportive than employees. Communication unit employees perceive more of a sense of control over their work, greater access to appropriate resources, and perceive more organizational impediments than do managers. (5) Managers and employees with high levels of job satisfaction perceive their work environment to be more creative and productive, and perceive fewer factors that inhibit and more factors that enhance creativity than managers and employees with low levels of job satisfaction. (6) For managers, administrative support and staff teamwork are the most important factors supporting creativity in their work environment. Freedom and managerial support are the most important factors supporting creativity for employees. (7) Lack of resources was the most important factor inhibiting creativity for both managers and employees. Managers also listed excessive workload as a creativity inhibitor, while employees listed bureaucracy. (8) Job satisfaction level explained the greatest amount of unique variance in employees' scores.