An investigation on the effects of personal characteristics on creativity and innovation

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of big Five factors including openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism on creativity and innovation among selected employees of municipality in city of Tehran, Iran. The proposed study uses a standard questionnaire developed by Costa and McCrae (1980) [Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38(4), 668.] to measure the effects of five personality characteristics. In addition, the study has adopted a questionnaire developed by Torrents et al. (2010) [Torrents, C., Castaner, M., DINUŠOVÁ, M., & Anguera, M. T. (2010). Discovering new ways of moving: Observational analysis of motor creativity while dancing contact improvisation and the influence of the partner. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 44(1), 53-69.] for measuring creativity. Using a simple regression analysis, the study has detected negative and meaningful relationship between neuroticism and creativity and innovation (β = -0.229, t-value = -3.196), a positive and meaningful relationship between extraversion and creativity and innovation (β = 0.209, t-value = 3.204) and finally a positive and meaningful relationship between openness and creativity and innovation (β = 0.225, t-value = 3.717). However, the study did not confirm any relationship between agreeableness as well as conscientiousness and creativity & innovation.

Keywords

• Creativity and Innovation; Personal characteristics; Municipality