Social identity and the recognition of creativity in groups (original) (raw)
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Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2007
This paper develops an analysis of innovative behavior and creativity that is informed by the social identity perspective. Two studies manipulated group norms and analyzed their impact on creative behavior. The results of Study 1 show that when people are asked to make a creative product collectively they display conformity to ingroup norms, but that they deviate from ingroup norms when group members make the same products on their own. A parallel result was found in group members' private perceptions of what they consider creative. In Study 2, the social identity of participants was made salient. Results showed conformity to group norms even when group members worked on their own creations. Findings suggest that innovative behavior is informed by normative context, and that in contexts in which people operate as members of a group (either physically through collective action, or psychologically through social identity salience) innovation will respect normative boundaries.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2003
A longitudinal study examined the interplay of identity negotiation processes and diversity in small groups of master's of business administration (MBA) students. When perceivers formed relatively positive impressions of other group members, higher diversity predicted more individuation of targets. When perceivers formed relatively neutral impressions of other group members, however, higher diversity predicted less individuation of targets. Individuation at the outset of the semester predicted self-verification effects several weeks later, and self-verification, in turn, predicted group identification and creative task performance. The authors conclude that contrary to self-categorization theory, fostering individuation and self-verification in diverse groups may maximize group identification and productivity.
How multiple social identities are related to creativity
The present research examined whether possessing multiple social identities (i.e., groups relevant to one’s sense of self) is associated with creativity. In Study 1, the more identities individuals reported having, the more names they generated for a new commercial product (i.e., greater idea fluency). In Study 2, multiple identities were associated with greater fluency and originality (mediated by cognitive flexibility, but not by persistence). Study 3 validated these findings using a highly powered sample. We again found that multiple identities increase fluency and originality, and that flexibility (but not persistence) mediated the effect on originality. Study 3 also ruled out several alternative explanations (self-affirmation, novelty seeking, and generalized persistence). Across all studies, the findings were robust to controlling for personality, and there was no evidence of a curvilinear relationship between multiple identities and creativity. These results suggest that possessing multiple social identities is associated with enhanced creativity via cognitive flexibility.
A social identity perspective on leadership and employee creativity
Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2009
This research uses a social identity analysis to predict employee creativity. We hypothesized that team identification leads to greater employee creative performance, mediated by the individual's creative effort. We hypothesized that leader inspirational motivation as well as leader team prototypicality would moderate the relationship between identification and creative effort. Consistent with these predictions, data based on 115 matched pairs of employee-leader ratings in a research and development context showed an indirect relationship between team identification and creative performance mediated by creative effort. The analyses also confirmed the expected moderated relationships. Leader inspirational motivation enhanced the positive association between identification and creative effort, especially when leader prototypicality was high. We discuss the value of social identity analyses of employee creativity and of the integration of social identity and transformational leadership analyses.
Creativity in Heterogeneous Groups: The Shared Representational Resources Model
The present article starts with a discussion of group creativity and especially of creativity in heterogeneous, multicultural groups. It is argued that creativity in a group situation is a reality that needs to be compared less with individual creativity but understood in its complexity as an emergent phenomenon. This is particularly the case when group members have different socio-cultural backgrounds although increased diversity can be detrimental for creativity. In this context, the theoretical framework within which group creativity is conceptualised is offered by the cultural psychology of creativity and the theory of social representations. From a socio-cultural perspective creativity is understood as an intricate process of artefact generation and group creative dynamics is described in terms of representational resources. The Shared Representational Resources Model (SRRM) suggests that groups that share “unique representational resources” into the “common representational space” are more creative than other groups or individuals alone. The practical expression of this model is The Columbus Window, a four quadrant image of the SRRM. In the end theoretical and practical implications of this cultural approach are briefly considered as well as perspectives for future research. Key-words: heterogeneous groups, cultural psychology of creativity, Shared Representational Resources Model, representational space, Columbus Window.
Social Creativity: A Comparison of Individual Versus Group Performance on a Creative Task
International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 2020
Creativity is the ability to transcend ideas, rules, relationships, patterns to form meaningful ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc. Society often thinks of creative individuals as working in isolation, and much research has been conducted to identify personality and other traits that lead to though intelligence and creativity result in large part from interaction and collaboration with other individuals. Much human creativity is social, arising from activities that take place in a context in which interaction with other people and the artifacts that embody collective knowledge are essential contributors. The purpose of the present paper is to identify whether people work more creatively as individuals or in groups. 33 middle and high school students worked either individually or in groups of two to create ideas for television shows to be aired on a social media platform. Entries were judged on their creativity and a $100 prize for most creative entry was offered to motivate the participants. Results showed that television show ideas created by pairs of students were judged as more creative than those created by individual students.
Motivated information processing, social tuning, and group creativity
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2010
The extent to which groups are creative has wide implications for their overall performance, including the quality of their problem solutions, judgments, and decisions. To further understanding of group creativity, we integrate the motivated information processing in groups model (De Dreu, Nijstad, & Van Knippenberg, 2008) with work on epistemic social tuning (Lunn, Sinclair, Whitchurch, & Glenn, 2007). Three propositions were advanced: (a) Groups produce more ideas when members have high rather than low epistemic motivation, especially when members also have a prosocial rather than pro-self motivation; (b) these ideas are more original, appropriate, or feasible when a group norm favors originality, appropriateness, or feasibility; and (c) originality is valued more in individualistic cultures (e.g., the Netherlands), whereas appropriateness is valued more in collectivist cultures (e.g., Korea). Four studies involving 3-person groups generating ideas supported these propositions: Epistemic motivation (mild vs. intense time pressure; presence vs. absence of process accountability) stimulated production and originality, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present and participants were Dutch or originality norms were experimentally primed. When appropriateness norms were primed or participants were Korean, epistemic motivation stimulated production and appropriateness, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present. We discuss implications for research on group processes and for work on culture and creativity.
Individualism–collectivism and group creativity
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2006
Current research in organizational behavior suggests that organizations should adopt collectivistic values because they promote cooperation and productivity, while individualistic values should be avoided because they incite destructive conflict and opportunism. In this paper, we highlight one possible benefit of individualistic values that has not previously been considered. Because individualistic values can encourage uniqueness, such values might be useful when creativity is a desired outcome. Although we hypothesize that individualistic groups should be more creative than collectivistic groups, we also consider an important competing hypothesis: Given that collectivistic groups are more responsive to norms, they might be more creative than individualistic groups when given explicit instructions to be creative. The results did not support this competing hypothesis and instead show that individualistic groups instructed to be creative are more creative than collectivistic groups given the same instructions. These results suggest that individualistic values may be beneficial, especially when creativity is a salient goal.