Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

Creativity

is the ability of an individual to generate new ideas or to conceive of new

perspectives on existing ideas. What makes a person creative? How do people become

creative? How does the creative process work? Although psychologists have not yet

discovered complete answers to these questions, examining a few general patterns can

help us understand the sources of individual creativity within organizations.

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The Creative Individual

Numerous researchers have focused their efforts on attempting to describe the common

attributes of creative individuals. These attributes generally fall into three categories:

background experiences, personal traits, and cognitive abilities.