Publication Date

Spring 2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Megumi Hosoda

Keywords

creativity, leadership, openness to experience, perceived organizational support, pos, transformational leadership

Subject Areas

Psychology; Organizational behavior; Organization theory

Abstract

Although openness to experience has been found to be a consistent and important determinant of creativity, organizations have been interested in ways in which they could alter the environment in order to increase creativity. Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin (1993) argue that organizational creativity is a function of the interaction between an individual’s personality and environment. Using Woodman’s theory, the present study was conducted to test whether two organizational factors, transformational leadership and perceived organizational support (POS), would moderate the relationship between openness to experience and creativity. Data were collected from 114 fulltime and parttime employees from various organizations through use of online surveys. Overall, although openness to experience, transformational leadership (in particular, articulating a vision), and POS were found to predict creativity, neither transformational leadership nor POS moderated the relationship between openness to experience and creativity. These findings suggest that (a) the more open to experience individuals are, (b) the more a leader articulates a vision, and (c) the more individuals perceive support from their organization, the more creativity individuals will exhibit. Organizations should therefore train their leaders to clearly articulate a vision and provide support to followers in order to increase employee creativity.

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