The Post Standard, February 22, 2011, Tuesday

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The Post Standard (Syracuse, NY)

February 22, 2011, Tuesday

Creativity May Not Advance Your Career

BYLINE: Mary Catt Contributing Writer

BODY:
Creativity might be the trait many CEOs say is essential for senior leadership, but research by a Cornell University professor and colleagues shows it can block you from reaching the top slots.

"Our three studies show that when people voice creative ideas, they are viewed by others as having less leadership potential," said Jack Goncalo, assistant professor of organizational behavior in Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The research will be published this year in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Its implication: "Creative people are getting filtered out on their way to the top."

The reason is that our deeply held expectations of "creative people" and "effective leaders" often clash.

Creative people are viewed as risky and unpredictable, while leaders are expected to reduce uncertainty and uphold the norms of the group.

Although people claim they want creativity, when given the opportunity, they preserve the status quo by sticking with unoriginal thinkers, data suggests.

This might help explain why many of the 1,500 leaders surveyed in 2010 by IBM's Institute for Business Value doubted their abilities to lead in complex times, Goncalo said.

Perhaps promoted for their unspoken promises to preserve the status quo, leaders are often expected to change the status quo when they arrive at the top -- an uncanny mismatch that hadn't been identified, researchers said.

Bias against selecting the most creative thinkers for the highest jobs was suggested by three studies, Goncalo said.

One study included 346 employees working in jobs that required creative problem-solving. The other two, at uni-versities in the northeastern United States, involved more than 180 students each.

Jennifer S. Mueller, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dishan Kamdar, of the Indian School of Business, con-ducted the research with Goncalo.

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