Of all of the steps managers can take to stimulate creativity, perhaps the most effective is providing organization members with an appropriate level of job-related challenge. When people feel appropriately challenged, they seem to almost naturally search for new creative ideas to help perform a job in an improved way. However, people should not be placed in jobs that are too simple or too difficult for them. If organization members have jobs that stretch their abilities too little, they can easily become bored on the job and distracted from being creative. If a job stretches worker abilities too much, workers can feel overwhelmed and are therefore not inclined to generate creative solutions to job-related problems. Managers must strive to understand both organization members and their jobs in order to make sure that workers are challenged at the level that encourages creative solutions for meeting job challenges.

People tend to be more creative in their jobs when they have some freedom to affect the process they have to use to perform their jobs. This freedom should not be provided, of course, unless organization members have a clear understanding of the work goals to be accomplished. Without such understanding, organization member creativity will lack the internal guidance needed to promote organizational success. Overall, creativity is used to the best advantage of organizations when members understand the work goals to be accomplished and can exercise some freedom in determining the best ways to accomplish those goals.

Having appro priate amounts of time is commonly discussed as a critical resource for fueling creativity in organization members. Without enough time in which to perform a job appropriately, organization members might be so engaged in performing the job that generating creative solutions to job-related problems is reduced. Managers who issue unnecessarily tight deadlines to push organization members to reach greater levels of production can cause employees to feel simultaneously overly managed and helpless in terms of being creative.

In the past, many managers believed that organization members usually generate their best creative ideas when operating under tight time constraints. Based on this belief, managers imposed tight deadlines as a tactic for encouraging creativity in organizations. More recent research, however, suggests that time pressures can actually affect creativity in different ways, depending on other organizational conditions.8

The time pressure/creativity matrix presented in Figure A3.2 illustrates that managers can either encourage or discourage the likelihood of creative thinking in organizations, depending on how high time pressure and low time pressure are combined with various organizational factors. According to this matrix, given the condition of low time pressure, the likelihood of creativity in an organization might be low if workers feel they’re on autopilot and get little encouragement from management to be creative. Under the same low time pressure condition, however, the likelihood of creativity in an organization might be high if people feel they’re on an expedition and thereby are characterized by having creativity geared toward exploring ideas.

High time pressure is also examined in Figure A3.2. Given the high time pressure condition, the likelihood of creativity in an organization might be high if people feel they’re on a mission to discover solutions to job-related problems. Under the same high time pressure condition, however, the likelihood of creativity in an organization might be low if people feel they’re on a treadmill and commonly experience extensive last-minute changes to schedules and plans.

Work groups that are characterized by members with a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds tend to be more creative than groups characterized by members who have similar backgrounds and perspectives. Diversity by itself, however, is simply not enough. To complement this diversity, members of a work group should be excited about accomplishing the group’s work goal(s), be willing to help each other through difficult periods and setbacks, and recognize and respect the differences among the unique knowledge and perspectives that group members possess.9

As with any other desirable behavior in organizations, managers should personally encourage organization members to be creative. Such encouragement may take many different forms and range from a verbal “thank you,” to awarding a Creative Achievement Certificate of Appreciation, or to holding a creativity appreciation luncheon.

Because managers are extremely busy and under constant pressure to achieve results, they can be easily distracted from personally encouraging creativity. Organization members often find their work challenging and interesting and demonstrate creativity in the short run without much personal encouragement from management. To sustain creativity in organization members over the long run, however, encouragement from management is vital. Such encouragement lets organization members know that creativity is important to the organization and assures them that management values creative efforts, even those that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful.10

To complement the personal encouragement, organizational systems and procedures should noticeably support organization member creativity.11 Such organizational support clearly indicates that organization member creativity is highly valued. Organizational procedures that promote information sharing and collaboration as related to solving organizational problems are examples of this support. Additionally, research suggests that managers who are trustworthy and provide employees with developmental feedback help increase employee creativity.12

The Coca-Cola Company is often cited for building organizational systems that support employee creativity. At Coca-Cola, being creative is considered an everyday activity, not an activity initiated by a new program or focused on only from time to time. Instead, creativity is a constant focus that is supported throughout the very structure of the company, including in the way organization members interact during meetings and problem-solving collaboration.13

As one last tactic for increasing creativity in organizations, managers can attempt to hire and retain organization members who are creative. Although this tactic may sound simple, it can be difficult to implement, because identifying people who are creative can be a formidable challenge. However, retaining creative employees is particularly important given research suggesting that individuals’ social structures can influence their creativity.14 In other words, it may help to surround creative employees with other creative employees. To help managers identify creative people, Figure A3.3 contains a list of characteristics that creative people tend to possess.