Creativity is the ability to generate original ideas or new perspectives on existing ideas.2 In today’s society, the term creativity often sparks thoughts of the arts and literature of highly original contributions such as Michelangelo’s work on the figure of David and Herman Melville’s Billy Budd.

Although how best to define creativity from a management viewpoint may be somewhat controversial, creativity in organizations does indeed relate to generating original ideas or new perspectives on existing ideas.3 Originality or newness, however, is not enough when analyzing creativity from an organizational perspective; an idea must also be useful and actionable. Overall, an idea must have a desirable impact on how organizational goals are accomplished. That is, an idea must be evaluated on whether it has a positive impact on critical organizational factors such as productivity, communication, coordination, or product quality.

Creativity involves seeing issues from different angles and breaking away from old rules and norms, which bind us to traditional methods of accomplishing tasks. Creativity, on the other hand, allows us to be diverse and helps us find new answers and solutions to problems, both old and new.4

The relationship between breaking away from old rules and norms for accomplishing tasks and meeting critical organizational challenges is obvious. For example, many managers face the daily challenge of motivating organization members and, as a result, are constantly searching for new ways to encourage employees to be more committed to their work. Additionally, managers often face the challenge of dealing more effectively with competitors and, thus, are frequently searching for new ways to increase the quality of their products or to develop new and more competitive products. Overall, meeting the challenges of motivating organization members or dealing more effectively with competitors is necessary to ensure organizational success. Because creativity is the source of new ideas on how to meet such challenges, managers should view creativity as a vital element in ensuring the success of their organization.