The creative climate: Its determinants and effects at a Swedish university

A study of the creative organizational and individual resources of a univer sity in Sweden was carried out by Ryhammar (1996). A sample of 130 teachers answered several questionnaires on organizational parameters and went thro ugh creativity and personality tests. One of the questionnaires was a measu re of the creativity aspects of the social climate. This study consisted of further analyses, according to a causal model, of the climate dimension an d its relations to other organizational dimensions and to outcome in terms of assessed creative achievements of the different departments. Some of the results were logical, expected, and easy to interpret; others were more pu zzling and could be tentatively explained only in view of the special chara cter of the academic milieu and its inhabitants. The main and clear finding was that climate and resources seemed to exert the strongest influence on the creative outcome, and that climate operated in the organization as a le ver for leadership and as a manifestation on the behavioral level of the or ganization's culture, defined as basic values. The more confusing results w ere that some organizational parameters with positive influences on climate nevertheless seemed to have suppressing effects on creativity, and other p arameters with negative impact on climate seemed to support creativity.