Readings in Innovation

Creativity and Leadership: Causal Convergence and Divergence

Dean Keith Simonton

If we are to judge from the research literature on the subject, creativity and leadership appear to be two very different topics. Creativity appears to attract the attention of more personality and educational psychologists, whereas leadership seems to fascinate more social and organizational psychologists. This separation is unfortunate, I believe, for in many respects these two phenomena can be subsumed under a single generic definition. Social psychologists are fond of defining a leader as that group member who exerts more influence over group performance and decision making than others. By this definition, creators are leaders, too, of a certain kind. A creative ...