Speaker Series 2005-2006

Affect and Creativity at Work

SIGAL G. BARSADE
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania

Friday, December 2, 2005, 10:30 AM - 12:00 NOON
Room 1520

Abstract: This study explored how affect relates to creativity at work. Using both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data from the daily diaries of 222 employees in seven companies, we examined the nature, form, and temporal dynamics of the affect-creativity relationship. The results indicate that positive affect relates positively to creativity in organizations and that the relationship is a simple linear one. Time-lagged analyses identify positive affect as an antecedent of creative thought, with incubation periods of up to two days. Qualitative analyses identify positive affect as a consequence of creative thought events, as well as a concomitant of the creative process. A preliminary theory of the affect-creativity cycle in organizations includes each of these links and proposes mechanisms by which they may operate.

Sigal Barsade is an Associate Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and received her PhD from UC Berkeley. Prior to that she was on the faculty of Yale University. Her research is on the influence of emotions on work behavior, particularly in groups, team behavior, executives and their management teams, organizational demography, organizational culture and change, the effect of personality on managerial performance, and power and politics in organizations. A sample of current research projects include the influence of mood and long-term affect on creativity in project teams; affective organizational culture; the role of emotions in the hiring process of customer service agents; the influence of emotional recognition skills on group negotiations; examining whether expressing anger is cathartic or catastrophic in groups and attribution and affect in the US workforce.

Curriculum Vita