The Creativity and Job Satisfaction of Artists in Organizations

Abstract

Although the creativity of artists is often studied, typically these artists work alone. The primary objective of this investigation was to examine artists employed in a large organization. Collaboration is required in organizations, and it may be that only particular artists succeeded in those settings. With this in mind, the Adjective Check List (ACL) was administered to 35 artists from a large organization specializing in creative products. Background data (e.g., birth order and education) were also collected. Seven scales extracted from each ACL and both personality and background were tested as predictors of the job satisfaction of the organizational artists. Another objective of this investigation was to assess the artists' views about the organization, using a measure of the Climate for Creative Productivity. The final objective was to compare artists' views of “an ideally or maximally creative visual artist” (based on a second administration of the ACL). Results indicated that job satisfaction could be predicted from the ACL, with the more original artists the least satisfied. Also important was the discrepancy between artists' self-descriptions and their descriptions of the ideal artists, the latter being indicative of higher creative potential.