Leadership,creativity and innovation: a meta-analytic review

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the most comprehensive meta-analytic examination of the relationship between leadership and both followers’ creative and innovative performance. Specifically, we examined 13 leadership variables (transformational, transactional, ethical, humble, leader-member exchange, benevolent, authoritarian, entrepreneurial, authentic, servant, empowering, supportive, and destructive) using data from 266 studies. In addition to providing robustly estimated correlations, we explore two theoretically and pragmatically important issues: the relative importance of the different leadership constructs and moderators of the relationship between leadership and employee creativity and innovation. Regrading creative performance, authentic, empowering, and entrepreneurial leadership demonstrated the strongest relationships. For innovative performance, both transactional (contingent reward) and supportive leadership appear particularly relevant. The current study synthesizes an important, burgeoning, diverse body of research, and in doing so, generates nuanced evidence that can be used to guide theoretical advancements, improved research designs, and up-to-date policy recommendations regarding leading for creativity, and innovation.     

Alternating Incubation Effects in the Generation of Category Exemplars

Four experiments tested the forgetting fixation hypothesis of incubation effects, comparing continuous vs. alternating generation of exemplars from three different types of categories. In two experiments, participants who listed as many members as possible from two different categories produced more responses, and more novel responses, when they alternated back and forth between the two categories, as compared to continuous uninterrupted listing from each of the two categories. This incubation effect was not found in Experiment 1, when participants were given taxonomic categories (birds and clothing ) for the generation task, but was found in Experiment 2 with sense impression categories (cold things and heavy things ), and in Experiment 3 with ad hoc categories (equipment you take camping and fattening foods ). A similar incubation effect was observed in Experiment 4 when a non‐verbal task was given between category generation tasks, but only for flexibly defined categories. The results suggest that forgetting from one alternating listing period to the next in the form of altering category cue representations was consistent with the observed incubation effects. These alternating incubation effects have implications for understanding cognitive processes that underlie creative cognition.     

A Pilot Study of Emotion Regulation Strategies in a Psychodrama Group of Psychiatric Patients

The researcher analyzed two emotion regulation strategies in a group of adults attending psychodrama psychotherapeutic group at an outpatient psychiatric clinic. The subjects, nine men and 15 women between the ages of 19 and 63 (with 14 subjects in young and 10 in middle adulthood) self-assessed their use of reappraisal and suppression using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire at the beginning of their treatment and at its end. They use reappraisal rarely to sometimes, regardless of their age, gender, and diagnosis. In the first assessment, the participants in middle adulthood and men reported using suppression more than young adults and women. During treatment, middle-aged adults and men succeeded to decrease their use of suppression significantly more than the young adults and women.     

Reflective Writing: Enhancing Students Cognitive Complexity Through Ethics Education

ABSTRACT

Counselors will inevitably encounter ethical dilemmas. Since they are expected to practice within the code of ethics, the skills to make an appropriate decision are necessary. It is generally agreed that the best place to start this training is in graduate school. More than a standard didactic approach is desired to address student attitudes, values, and beliefs while developing cognitive complexity. Creative approaches can address the specialized goals inherent in ethics education. This article reviews the use of a reflective writing assignment to guide students’ exploration of their values and beliefs when confronted with a value based ethical dilemma. The students’ writings demonstrate an increase in cognitive complexity because of this assignment.     

Mistakes as Pathways Towards Creativity in Counseling: A Case Example

ABSTRACT

The relationship between mistakes, improvisation, and counseling process is explored through the use of a case example involving a failed clinical intervention. Exploration of mistakes offers an opportunity to examine multiple elements of counseling while highlighting the creative nature of the counseling process. Counselor educators are encouraged to incorporate discussions of mistakes and creative development into training.     

Using the Sand Tray to Facilitate Client Creativity: A Strengths Focused Approach to Adolescent Depression

Interventions incorporating the sand tray are presented as a tool for facilitating creative solutions in adolescent clients presenting with depression. The authors describe how interventions using the sand tray promote client strengths and provide a tool for adolescent clients to better understand their depressive symptoms, identify triggers, and practice coping skills. Attention will be given to how these interventions can be used across counseling perspectives including cognitive-behavioral, narrative, and psychodramatic approaches. The intervention is described and the authors present a case study of its use with an adolescent client experiencing significant levels of depression.     

From prevention focus to adaptivity and creativity: the role of unfulfilled goals and work engagement

ABSTRACT

Whereas promotion focus is consistently linked to high adaptivity (i.e., adjustment to changes) and creativity (i.e., generation of useful and original ideas), prevention focus is commonly associated with low adaptivity and creativity. The present study uncovers the conditions under which prevention focus may also have positive effects on adaptivity and creativity. First, we hypothesize that trait-level promotion focus positively relates to day-level adaptivity as well as creativity. More importantly, we hypothesize that trait-level prevention focus positively relates to day-level adaptivity and creativity when day-level goal fulfilment is low (i.e., two-way interactions) and that these effects are stronger when day-level work engagement is high (i.e., three-way interactions). To test our hypotheses, we conducted a daily diary survey among 209 employees from different occupational sectors, over five working days. As expected, trait promotion focus was positively related to adaptivity and creativity. Furthermore, trait prevention focus positively related to both adaptivity and creativity when day-level goal fulfilment was low andday-level work engagement was high (3-way interactions). None of the two-way interaction effects of trait prevention focus and goal fulfilment was significant. Our findings suggest that prevention focus and unfulfilled goals jointly should not only be seen as threats, but also as opportunities for adaptation and creativity.     

Exploring the Use of Mindful Andragogy to Create Inclusive Classrooms

ABSTRACT

Researchers have indicated that mindful teaching approaches support students and educators throughout the learning process. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of counselor educators with a daily mindfulness practice in the classroom with culturally diverse students. Relational cultural theory (RCT) concepts of relational connections and disconnections were used to explore the participants’ lived experiences of implementing a mindful teaching approach. Purposeful sampling yielded 10 participants who participated in semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed to identify essential themes using an inductive approach. Findings may be useful for counselor educators who seek a greater capacity for awareness, acceptance, empathy, self-care, creativity, and presence when working with diverse students in the classroom.     

Improving Empathy in Children: Interactive Read-Aloud as a Counseling Intervention

ABSTRACT

The authors describe interactive read-alouds as an effective counseling strategy to improve empathy levels in school aged children. The importance of reading development and empathy development were considered as well. Results of the literature review indicate reading development is an essential building block in school aged children’s future academic development. Furthermore, empathy development in students was deemed important. A lesson plan was created to provide school counselors with a means of implementing the interactive read-aloud as a counseling strategy.     

Using Comedy to Explore Racial-Ethnic Identity with Clients: A Narrative Approach

ABSTRACT

The physical and mental health benefits of humor and comedy have been widely documented. This article presents a therapeutic framework outlining several clinical applications of comedy designed to facilitate client exploration of racial-ethnic identity. It also discusses how comedy can enhance narrative therapy approaches by serving as an engaging and effective tool for assisting clients in the process of externalizing storytelling, identifying exceptions to problems, and authoring new and positive stories about racial-ethnic identity.