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Fostering Creativity and Innovation without Encouraging Unethical Behavior

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Abstract

Many prescriptions offered in the literature for enhancing creativity and innovation in organizations raise ethical concerns, yet creativity researchers rarely discuss ethics. We identify four categories of behavior proffered as a means for fostering creativity that raise serious ethical issues: (1) breaking rules and standard operating procedures; (2) challenging authority and avoiding tradition; (3) creating conflict, competition and stress; and (4) taking risks. We discuss each category, briefly identifying research supporting these prescriptions for fostering creativity and then we delve into ethical issues associated with engaging in the prescribed behavior. These four rubrics illustrate ethical issues that need to be incorporated into the creativity and innovation literature. Recommendations for how organizations can respond to the ethical issues are offered based on practices of exemplary organizations and theories of organizational ethics. A research agenda for empirically investigating the ethical impact these four categories of behavior have on organizations concludes the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40292, U.S.A.

    Melissa S. Baucus & William I. Norton Jr.

  2. Bacus Consulting, 720 Talon Drive, Louisville, KY, 40223, U.S.A.

    David A. Baucus

  3. Department of Management, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, 45207, U.S.A.

    Sherrie E. Human

Authors
  1. Melissa S. Baucus
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  2. William I. Norton Jr.
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  3. David A. Baucus
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  4. Sherrie E. Human
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Correspondence to Melissa S. Baucus.

Additional information

Melissa S. Baucus, Associate Professor at University of Louisville, teaches entrepreneurship courses to undergraduate and Ph.D. students. She earned her Ph.D. in management at Indiana University. Melissa's research involves creativity and ethics among entrepreneurs, advisory boards in entrepreneurial firms and corporate illegality. Her research has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Business Venturing and other leading journals.

William I. Norton, Jr. received his Ph.D. in strategic management from University of South Carolina. Bill currently teaches entrepreneurship, strategy and leadership to undergraduate and MBA students at University of Louisville. He served in the U.S. Army in command and staff positions and then practiced public accounting for 17 years prior to launching his academic career. His research interests involve entrepreneurial risk assessment by entrepreneurs, systematic search for entrepreneurial opportunities and advisory boards in entrepreneurial firms. His research has been published in Small Business Economics, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management and other management journals.

David A. Baucus has a Ph.D. from Indiana University in strategic management. He taught at University of Kentucky and Utah State University prior to starting his own consulting practice. He consults on strategy, business planning processes and other issues with corporations. His current interests center on creativity in organizations, specifically, how the latest neuroscience research can be used to help organizations fully develop their employees' creativity and human potential. Dr. Baucus has published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management and other leading journals.

Sherrie E. Human earned her Ph.D. in entrepreneurship from University of Kentucky. She serves as an associate professor at Xavier University where she was the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Castellini Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies from 2005–2006. Her research in entrepreneurship focuses on entrepreneurial and interorganizational networks, ethical issues such as posturing versus lying among entrepreneurs and new venture initiation. Her research has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management Education, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Small Business Strategy, and Journal of Small Business Management.

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Baucus, M.S., Norton, W.I., Baucus, D.A. et al. Fostering Creativity and Innovation without Encouraging Unethical Behavior. J Bus Ethics 81, 97–115 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9483-4

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