Inventiveness is good - in today's business environment, inventiveness is more important than ever before. So, why do so many once innovative companies fall into difficulties over time? Why does continuous original thinking become the exception rather than the norm? Jennifer Mueller, a professor of management at Wharton Business School, along with colleagues from Cornell University and the Indian School of Business, has some understanding of the reasons.
Understanding the need for creativity within a company is not the same as actually fostering creativity. Mueller's work shows that those who can think outside the box may be penalized for it. In the first study covered in this paper, Mueller and her colleagues examined this trend within a department of a large multinational refinery located in central India. A total of 346 employees participated in this study, with leadership potential evaluations conducted for 291 individuals and relevant assessments completed by 55 others. The evaluators were asked to fill out questionnaires rating the extent to which these 291 individuals proposed new beneficial ideas and their likelihood of "becoming an effective leader" and "being promoted to a leadership position." When analyzing the data, Mueller and her team controlled for the possibility that some creative individuals might have no interest in advancing to managerial positions.
This fact is interesting for board members of global companies. In a recent survey by IBM's Institute for Business Value involving 1,500 chief executive officers, creativity was considered the single most important success trait for leading large enterprises in the future. This finding comes as no surprise to Mueller. "Research shows that people with their own unique creative ideas are better leaders (more suited to leadership roles). Such individuals know how to recognize good ideas, are willing to accept them, and know how to bring innovation into the organization. Promoting creative leaders is a serious challenge for businesses."
The research found a significant correlation between being creative and being perceived as not a good manager. "Of course, people will say creativity is great," Mueller points out, "almost no one says they don't want creativity. But when someone actually presents a highly creative idea, people's reactions are often, 'Oh, what does that mean?' In fact, when people encounter creativity, they always feel uncomfortable."
A puzzling discovery: individuals who frequently express creative ideas are considered less likely to possess leadership potential. The exception occurs when people are specifically asked to focus on charismatic leaders; then, creative individuals receive better evaluations. But in most cases, being creative seems to place one at a disadvantage for promotions within a company. Mueller states, "Promoting innovative leaders isn't easy... allowing a creative leader to reach their full potential requires more time and effort than we previously imagined."
Creators and Evaluators
In an article titled "Recognizing Innovative Leadership: Does Expressing Novel Ideas Negatively Impact Perceptions of Leadership Potential?" set to be published in the March 2011 issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Mueller and co-authors Jack A. Goncalo from Cornell University and Dishan from the Indian School of Business conducted three studies to carefully examine how creative individuals are perceived by their colleagues.
This finding was confirmed in the second study. In this study, Mueller and her colleagues surveyed 194 students enrolled at a large university in the northeastern United States. Half of the students played the role of "expressers," while the other half evaluated these ideas. Their task was to come up with ideas on how airlines could earn more revenue from passengers. Among those generating ideas, half were asked to propose creative solutions to this problem, which needed to be both novel and effective. The other half was asked...
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