Kindling the Creative Potential

Abstract

‘There’s a way to do it better—find it’—Thomas Edison In this competitive era, it becomes vital for organizations to be innovative in their businesses and employees of an organization play a crucial role towards this goal. Hence, it becomes pertinent for any organization to encourage employees to come up with creative ideas, strategies and solutions to sustain the business. The context of this study is advertising agencies which fall under the category of creative industry and employ creative people in all critical functions. The study aims to identify the personality traits, behavioural attributes and communication patterns (as perceived and reported by subordinates) which are critical for effective leadership in terms of fostering creative outcomes from subordinates in advertising agencies. It attempts to highlight the role of superiors (bosses) in fostering creativity amongst their subordinates. The study was conducted on employees in leading advertising agencies of India. The methodology used for the research is qualitative. The data were collected in three different stages and the tool used for collecting data was in-depth interviews. Qualitative content analysis was done on the interview protocols. Data interpretation was done using open, axial and selective coding. The findings led to the formulation of a three-factor model for fostering creative outcomes in subordinates, using grounded theory approach.