Creative leadership: How problem solving, decision making, and organizational context influence leadership creativity

Leadership and creativity are broad, complex domains. Creativity in the leadership domain is often examined in terms of how the leaders influence the creativity of their subordinates, but there is less focus on how the leaders are creative themselves. This chapter examines a range of individual differences, managerial decision making, and organizational factors that could influence a leader's creativity. Individual differences such as person ality traits, emotional intelligence, creative cognitions, and expertise could be important factors that influence the leader's creativity. Further, we integrate research on decision-making styles and information processing to further explore potential influences on leader creativity. Although the individual differences and managerial decision-making factors are impor tant, leadership and creativity in an organization do not happen without the influence of environmental factors. We explore how resources, organiza tional strategy, and differing levels of leadership (e.g., the leader-follower dynamics) influence leader creativity. By combining multiple research lines, we hope to offer a more robust examination of a perceived scarcity of research into how leaders can be creative.