Leading creative people: Orchestrating expertise
and relationships
Michael D. Mumford*, Ginamarie M. Scott, Blaine Gaddis, Jill M. Strange
Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, 455 West Lindsey Street, Room 470, Normal, OK 73019, USA
Accepted 9 September 2002
Abstract
Global competition, new production techniques, and rapid technological change have placed a
premium on creativity and innovation. Although many variables influence creativity and innovation in
organizational settings, there is reason to suspect that leaders and their behavior represent a particularly
powerful influence. In the present article, we review the available literature examining leadership
behaviors contributing to creativity and innovation in organizational settings. Based on the findings
obtained in these studies, we argue that the leadership of creative people requires expertise. Moreover,
the successful leader must employ a number of direct and indirect influence tactics—tactics consistent
with the needs of creative people working in an organizational environment. The implications of these
observations for theory and practice are discussed.
D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
In organizations, creativity and innovation have not always been seen as something of
value. This tendency to dismiss innovative work, and creative people, is aptly illustrated in a
statement by one icon of 20th century industry, John D. Rockefeller, who, in describing his
career, notes, ‘‘I have never felt the need for scientific knowledge, have never felt it. A young
man who wants to succeed in business does not require chemistry or physics. He can always
hire scientists’’
As we move into the 21st century, this traditional view has begun to breakdown. Creativity,
the generation of new ideas, and innovation, the translation of these ideas into action
, have come to be seen as a key goal of many organizations
and a potentially powerful influence on organizational performance
1048-9843/02/$ – see front matter
D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
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* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-405-325-5583; fax: +1-405-325-4737.
E-mail address: mmumford@ou.edu (M.D. Mumford).
The Leadership Quarterly 13 (2002) 705 – 750