Thinking outside the box: Is it really okay? A comparative study of new and tenured managers in the hospitality industry and their assessment of creativity in the workplace environment

Creative studies of management have focused on the creative process and its encouragements and impediments, but few have looked at how creative effort may change with increase in tenure. The issue under study in this thesis is whether managers who have been in the hospitality industry for a length of time seem more or less inclined to encourage creative efforts or demonstrate creative effort themselves.;The participants were the management team of a large, convention hotel in a major city in the United States. They took the KEYS survey, which is designed to measure participants' feelings about the creativity of their work environment. In addition, selected managers participated in research interviews.;The data was organized into five tenure groups and three management levels. Analysis of the data showed that the tenure group with 6--10 years of experience clearly stood out from the other groups. This group consistently scored the lowest in all of the environmental scales. The interview data did present statements that agreed with the survey data, although no clear trend relating to years of service emerged.;Thus, the tendency to judge the work environment as creative did decrease with tenure for the 6--10 year group. The data shows that this may relate to a decreased tendency toward creative effort as well.