Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Management

Advisor

David Banner

Abstract

Emotionally disconnected employees, about 70% in the U.S., do not experience positive affect at work, are disengaged, and not creative. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effects of leaders' endorsement of idiosyncratic workplace fun (independent variable) and organizational playfulness climate (independent variable) on organizational creativity (dependent variable). Complexity-based theoretical perspectives on organizational creativity framed this quantitative study. Data were collected via three survey instruments at two data points from 7 project teams, divided into two experimental groups, at 6 companies in northwestern United States. One group received an intervention for 1 month. Pearson's correlation analysis showed no significant relationships between leaders' endorsement of idiosyncratic workplace fun and organizational playfulness climate with organizational creativity. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that the 2 experimental groups did not differ significantly in terms of their creativity when team leaders endorsed idiosyncratic workplace fun and when project teams worked in an organizational playfulness climate. Bivariate regression analysis and multiple regression analysis showed that leaders' endorsement of idiosyncratic workplace fun and organizational playfulness climate did not predict organizational creativity, neither individually nor collectively. Although the study's findings cannot be used to affect social change, the examination of the relationships between leaders' endorsement of idiosyncratic workplace fun, organizational playfulness climate, and organizational creativity in the future might yield important insights about the mechanisms facilitating the emergence of organizational creativity at companies.

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