Creativity at Work

Current definitions of creativity focus on the outcome, that is, an idea or a product that is original as well as useful. However, early work in the area of creativity focused on the creative individual and creativity in the domains of art and science. Research during this early period was directed primarily at understanding major breakthroughs and paradigm shifts (also known as big C creativity). Current conceptualizations include minor creative [Page 253]acts involving incremental change and adaptation (known as little c creativity), as well as pro-c or the expression of creativity in a professional capacity, suggesting that creativity can occur in almost any job. Models of creativity in organizations focus on individual antecedents of creativity, organizational or contextual factors that hinder or facilitate individual creativity, ...