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Leader Creativity as a Predictor of Leading Change in Organizations 1
Author(s) -
Matthew Cynthia Trapani
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00427.x
Subject(s) - creativity , psychology , variance (accounting) , social psychology , institution , sociology , social science , accounting , business
This investigation examined leader creativity, broadly conceptualized as a confluence of personal attributes, as a predictor of leading change in organizations. Because organizational change occurs primarily in the social system in support of the technical system, the role of social‐emotional competency was also examined. Two correlational studies were conducted in samples of U.S. Army officers. As predicted, leader creativity was a significant predictor of leading change. Creativity measures explained 42% of the variance in leading change performance measures in novice officers and 71% of the variance in early‐ to mid‐career officers. Social‐emotional competency was also a significant predictor of leading change, but less than creativity. “The art of the creative leader is the art of institution‐building, the reworking of human and technological materials to fashion an organization that embodies new and enduring values” (Selznick, 1957, pp. 152–153).