Creative and other personality functions as defined by percept-genetic techniques and their relation to organizational conditions

Individual differences influencing how the conditions in an organization ar e experienced can depend on a variety of factors. Differences in personalit y, for example, and variations in individual creative capacity are probably influential. This study concentrated on university teachers at Orebro Univ ersity in Sweden, and dealt first with how their creative functioning, defi ned within the percept-genetic frame of reference, was related to their exp eriences of organizational conditions, including organizational outcomes as creativity and productivity. The academic organization was defined describ ed, and measured in terms of organizational structure, culture, climate, re sources, workload pressure, and leadership style. Because the results showe d that creative functioning was connected with I of the organizational stru ctural factors, the second part of the study concentrated on how an experie nce of the university as open, manifold, and complex was related to percept -genetic personality descriptions about anxiety and defense against anxiety and to the individual's way of balancing subjective and objective influenc es. Viewed from the perspective of personality the results showed that the crucial variable in the university organization was openness and diversity. Those who regard this quality to be particularly typical of the university were likely to be creative, open both to their emotional resources and fan tasy and to the possibilities offered by the work situation. Even if easily aroused, they were capable of transforming their anxiety in a constructive direction.