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Workplace Creativity, Innovation, and Age

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

Synonyms

Adaptation; Change; Invention; Originality

Definition

Creativity is the generation of ideas that are both novel and appropriate. Innovation is the subsequent intentional implementation of those ideas.

While work performance is a complex and multifaceted construct (Viswevaran 2001), one of the most coveted and elusive dimensions of work performance is creative and innovative performance. Organizations look for ways to stimulate (or at least not hinder) their employees’ creative and innovative performance, because this will – it is believed – contribute to individual, team, and organizational success (Gilson 2008). Since the workforce is aging and will continue to do so over the next decades, organizations need to know what ramifications – if any – this demographic change will have for their innovative potential. The goal of this entry, therefore, is to examine relationships between employee age and workplace creativity and innovation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Eric F. Rietzschel & Hannes Zacher

Authors
  1. Eric F. Rietzschel
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  2. Hannes Zacher
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric F. Rietzschel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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Rietzschel, E.F., Zacher, H. (2015). Workplace Creativity, Innovation, and Age. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_202-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_202-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-287-080-3

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