Igniting the Creative Spark in Organizations: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Professor Barry Staw Finds Individualistic Culture Promotes Innovation.

(From AScribe)

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Firms that focus on individual employee achievement and uniqueness are more conducive to generating innovative ideas than companies that emphasize a team-based culture, according to UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Professor Barry Staw.

Surprisingly, even when groups who emphasize teamwork are instructed to be creative, they generate fewer ideas and less creative ideas than groups who are more focused on independent viewpoints, Staw concluded after conducting a study with 204 university students. Staw and co-author Jack Goncalo of Cornell University outlined their findings in an article titled "Individualism-Collectivism and Group Creativity," published in the May issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

"The message of this article is that diversity of ideas and perspectives is crucial for innovation," says Staw, who has been studying creativity …