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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 |
