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The Psychology of Novelty-Seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance

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The Psychology of Novelty-Seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance Erim - 04 omslag Schweizer 19/11/04 10:01 am Pagina 1 An Individual Psychology of Novelty-Seeking, 48 TANJA SOPHIE SCHWEIZER Creativity and Innovation What does it take to generate something new? The desire to seek something SOPHIE SCHWEIZERTANJA and Innovation An Individual Psychology of Novelty-Seeking, Creativity new, the satisfaction of finding something, sharing these findings with others who also recognize them as new - these are key ingredients of generating a novelty. Part One of this book proposes a model of the novelty generation process based on an analysis of psychological theories, An Individual Psychology most importantly drawing from neuropsychology and social psychology. This Novelty Generation Model (NGM) clearly distinguishes three of Novelty-Seeking, components: novelty-seeking, creativity and innovative performance. It is meant to provide a basis for better understanding the links between these particular components and identifying what interferes with and what Creativity and Innovation facilitates each of them. Practical advice is also generated on this basis that is relevant not only for the novelty-seekers themselves, but also for their social environment that may want to support them. Highly creative professionals are often only loosely affiliated with organizations, while much of the current scientific literature on creativity and innovation focuses on individuals in tighter employee relationships and teams in organizations. This book presents an individual work psychology for those settings where creative professionals (be it artists, scientists or inventors) see organizations (e.g. publishers or universities) more as service-providers to their own work. In such comparatively free professional settings other support issues seem to become more relevant: For instance grants and awards conferred to individuals. These phenomena that have not yet been paid attention to in the psychological literature on creativity and innovation, are given a place in this individual work psychology. Many questions may be asked about grants and awards, whether they actually support innovation is an important one. Part Two, the empirical part of this book, among others presents a large-scale longitudinal study that tests some more specific hypotheses on the relationship between the individual’s innovative performance and winning awards and grants. The study includes 1348 writers and poets that have received grants and/or awards in the German-speaking publishing area. ERIM The Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) is the Research School (Onderzoekschool) in the field of management of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The founding participants of ERIM are the Rotterdam School of Management and the Rotterdam School of Economics. ERIM was founded in 1999 and is officially accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The research undertaken by ERIM is focussed on the management of the firm in its environment, its intra- and inter-firm relations, and its business processes in their interdependent connections. The objective of ERIM is to carry out first rate research in management, and to offer an advanced graduate program in Research in Management. Within ERIM, over two hundred senior researchers and Ph.D. candidates are active in the different research programs. From a variety of academic backgrounds and expertises, the ERIM community is united in striving for excellence and working at the forefront of creating new business knowledge. www.erim.eur.nl ISBN 90-5892-077-1 AN INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY OF NOVELTY-SEEKING, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION Cover Design by Elja van Tol & Laurens Rook AN INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY OF NOVELTY-SEEKING, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION THESIS TO OBTAIN THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR FROM THE ERASMUS UNIVERSITY ROTTERDAM BY COMMAND OF THE RECTOR MAGNIFICUS PROF.DR. S.W.J. LAMBERTS AND ACCORDING TO THE DECISION OF THE DOCTORATE BOARD THE PUBLIC DEFENCE SHALL BE HELD ON FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER 2004 AT 11 O’CLOCK BY TANJA SOPHIE SCHWEIZER BORN AT HEILBRONN AM NECKAR, GERMANY DOCTORAL COMMITTEE PROMOTOR: Prof.dr. R.J.M. van Tulder OTHER MEMBERS: Prof.dr. C.R. Cloninger Prof.dr. A. Klamer Prof.dr. D.L. van Knippenberg Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) Rotterdam School of Management / Rotterdam School of Economics Erasmus University Rotterdam Internet: http://www.erim.eur.nl ERIM Electronic Series Portal: http://hdl.handle.net/1765/1 ERIM Ph.D. Series Research in Management 48 ISBN 90 – 5892 – 077 –1 © 2004, Tanja Sophie Schweizer All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 13 CHAPTER ONE 17 Creativity and Innovation in Theory and Practice: A Critical Overture 1.1 What does ‘To support creativity and innovation’ mean? 17 1.2 The Theoretical Confusion around Creativity and Innovation 20 1.3 A Psychological Model to Distinguish Novelty-Seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance 25 1.3.1 Closing Theoretical Gaps in Research on the Novelty Generation Process 25 1.3.2 Closing Empirical Gaps with respect to the Novelty Generation Process: The Example of Awards and Grants 26 1.3.3 An Overview of this Dissertation 27 PART I THE PROCESS OF NOVELTY GENERATION: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS CHAPTER TWO 33 The Psychology of Novelty-seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance 2.1 What does it take to generate a novelty? 33 2.2 What Genetics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuropsychology and Psycho-physiology have to say about Novelty-seeking and Creativity 34 5 2.3 Novelty-seeking and Creativity in Personality Theories 40 2.3.1 Research on Curiosity and Novelty-Seeking 40 2.3.2 Novelty-seeking in Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) 42 2.3.3 Zuckerman’s Sensation-seeking scales 43 2.3.4 ‘Openness to Experience’ in Costa & McCrae’s Five-Factor-Model 44 2.3.5 Need for Cognition: The Motivational Basis of Novelty-Seeking Behavior 45 2.3.6 A Constructively Critical View Of the Creativity Literature 46 2.4 Introducing the Novelty Generation Model (NGM) on Novelty-Seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance 48 2.5. Understanding Innovative Performance by Way of Social Psychology and Social Cognition 55 2.5.1 Social Infl uence Affecting the Novelty Generation Process 55 2.5.2 Underlying Innovative Performance: Social Comparison, Contrast and Social Judgment Processes 58 2.6 Psychodynamic Aspects of the Novelty Generation Process: About Needs, Fears, Motivation and Self-Realization 63 2.6.1 The Satisfaction of the Need for Cognition by Novelty-Seeking Behavior 63 2.6.2 The satisfaction of achievement needs in the innovation process 64 2.6.3 The psychodynamic interactions between innovative performance, creativity and novelty-seeking 65 2.7 The Individual’s Health in the Process of Novelty Generation: Clinical Neuropsychology 66 2.7.1 Beyond Optimal Degrees of Novelty-Seeking 66 2.7.2 Novelty-Seeking and Dopamine-Related Disorders: About Lack and Excess of Dopamine in Drug Abuse and Alcoholism 67 2.7.3 Novelty-Seekers and Mood Disorders- When the Serotonin Pathway crosses the Dopamine Pathway 69 2.7.4 Compulsive-Obsessive Disorders and Personality Disorders Linked With Creative Personalities 70 2.8 Conclusions on the Relationships between Novelty-Seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance in the Process of Novelty Generation 71 6 Table of Contents CHAPTER THREE 75 The Psychology of Social Support to Novelty-seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance 3.1 Self-Support and Social Support to the Novelty Generation Process 75 3.2 A Social-Psychological Defi nition of Support To the Novelty Generation Process 77 3.3 Sources of Support to the Novelty Generation Process 82 3.3.1 The Center of Support to the Novelty Generation Process: Self-Support 82 3.3.2 Interpersonal Support Issues: Private and Professional 83 3.3.3 Impersonal Support: Foundations, Governments and the Market 87 3.4 Psychological Antecedents and Consequences of Support to the Novelty Generation Process 89 3.4.1 Support Constellations: The Novelty-Seeker between Self-Support, Interpersonal and Impersonal Support 89 3.4.2 How Impersonal Support Interacts with other Impersonal and Interpersonal Support Sources 90 3.4.3 How Impersonal and Interpersonal Support Interact with Self-Support 91 3.4.4 How excessive self-support and private interpersonal support interacts with professional and impersonal support 93 3.5 The Psychology of Grants and Awards as Impersonal Validational and Instrumental Support to the Individual 95 3.5.1 Grants and Awards: A Typology 95 3.5.2 Grants versus Awards: Stimulants or Depressants to Novelty-Seeking and the Creative Process? 99 3.5.3 Grants versus Awards: Stimulants or Depressants to Innovative Performance? 104 3.5.4 Grants and Awards as a Response to the Generation of Novelties 107 3.6 Social Support to the Novelty Generation Process: Some Hypotheses 109 7 CHAPTER FOUR 113 Social Support and Negative Stereotypes in the Novelty Generation Process 4.1 What is negative support? 113 4.2 Interactions of Stereotypes with Support to Novelty-Seeking, Creativity and Innovative Performance 116 4.3 Individual-Level Stereotypes Interacting With Support to the Novelty-Seeker 119 4.3.1 The Gender Stereotype in the Novelty-Seeking Professions 119 4.3.2 The Maturity Stereotype in the Novelty-seeking Professions 127 4.4 Organizational Level Stereotypes
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