Positive and Negative Creativity in Groups, Institutions, and Organizations: A Model and Theoretical Extension

Abstract

Potential environmental and individual influences on creativity at work are described with an emphasis on how they relate to the possibility that creativity can be directed toward either positive or negative ends. A model of the psychological processes that might underlie positive and negative creativity is briefly delineated, and some outcomes of each type of creativity are outlined. The main focus is on the factors that might trigger the processes of and outcomes from positive and negative creativity and only tangentially on the cognitive processes underlying creativity and on the organizational outcomes of creativity. Literature from settings other than organizations (e.g., families, schools) that have been subject to limited theoretical and empirical attention of scholars of organizational and group processes and outcomes is mustered to support the theory.