When one is not morally encouraged, he may be demoralized. The moment he is demoralized, it will be difficult for him to be creative in his area of endeavor.  At this point, the law of diminishing marginal return sets in.

Thank you Williams for your answer. But i haven't found any literature regarding this relationship. 

As of now I cant think of a study that explores org. morality and individual creativity but there are interesting indirect studies that may be helpful. As counter inutitive as it may seem but there is some evidence that negative moods and feelings can actually trigger creativity. You can find more in psychology literature as well.

George, J. M., & Zhou, J. (2002). Understanding when bad moods foster creativity and good ones don't: the role of context and clarity of feelings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 687.

However, I would recommend that it sparks an interesting investigation to pursue. Feel free to connect and explore possible synergies.

Thank you Dr. Saud for your kind opinion. I have also read about negative moods that trigger creativity, but I wanted to go for something positive. I have heard a few presentation on it but they are not part of serious academic research, i was wondering if i could use them as my base?

I would not suggest you to make it as a base if its not something published in a high ranked journal.

Sir i have read one article on employee attitudes of Harvard Business Review, and heard a TED Talk on morality in business. 

I would like to ask for a favor. If i send u my proposal, would you just read it for me and give a researcher's point of view?

Hello Ayesha:

That's a good question. There are some promising findings in the leadership literature. I have provided two references below.

Cerne, M., Jaklic, M., & Skerlavaj, M. (2013). Authentic leadership, creativity, and innovation: A multilevel perspective. Leadership, 9, 63-85.

Rego, A., Sousa, F., Marques, C., & Pina e Cunha, M. (2012). Authentic leadership promoting employees' psychological capital and creativity. Journal of Business Research, 65, 429-437.

Yes Ayesha ! I will try to give you my word on it.

Hi Ayesha,

Your question is a good one for inspiring deep thought.  It also motivates wry humor.  As an example, the first thought that came to mind is that 'organizational morality' diminishes the level of creativity one can expect from its Accounting Department. 

In fact, I have written on Corporate Moral Obligation (CMO) picking up where legislation like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SARBOX) leaves off in terms of ensuring organizational transparency and accountability.  SARBOX makes it illegal to "cook the books" but then, it has always been illegal to engage in creative bookkeeping in order to distort losses and defraud the public.  Nonetheless, the fact of illegality did not stop Andy Fastow of ENRON fame from coming up with a most creative method for hiding the fact that ENRON was losing millions daily.  And, he was motivated to come up with his phantom investments to keep ENRON afloat because he was immersed in the culture of dishonesty, corruption and deceit that had been laboriously inculcated by Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling (The Smartest Guys in the Room ).

Gwen

Hello Ayesha,

This article might be useful: D Liu, H Liao, R Loi (2012) The Dark Side of Leadership...

It is about abusive supervision and employee creativity, and a good place to start with the literature.

Best Lola-Peach

Hello Ayesha,

Lola-Peach's comment reminded me of some additional work that might be of interest to you. There has been some writing on "negative creativity." The argument has been made that injustice causes people to become more creative, but in a way that can be destructive for the organization.Therefore, if you treat justice as a form of morality, and I think most philosophers would do so, then you could use the negative creativity literature to help you with your question.

Here are two references (one of which is my own)...

Clark, K., & James, K. (2010). Justice and positive and negative creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 12, 311-320.

James, K., Clark, K., & Cropanzano, R. (1999). Positive and negative creativity in groups, institutions, and organizations: A model and theoretical extension. Creativity Research Journal, 12, 211-226.

Professor James also has a chapter in this book:

Cropley, D. H., Cropley, A. J., Kaufman, J. C., & Runco, M. A. (Eds.) (2010). The Dark Side of Creativity. Cambridge University Press.

Finally, in their interesting review, Shalley and Gilson (2004) mention justice as an antecedent of creativity. Here is the reference:

Shalley, C. E., & Gilson, L. L. (2004). What leaders need to know: A review of social and contextual factors that can foster or hinder creativity. Leadership Quarterly, 15, 33-53.

-- Russell

Thank you Russell for your kind opinion. I have seen a lot of work on negative antecedents of creativity, but i wanted to explore some positive variables. I have used model of Ellemers (2011) where she used morality as  a sense of pride for employees and results in their positive job attitudes.

Morality is relative, however, I believe for the most part it helps people or employees to focus their physical and mental activity on organizational objectives. Expression is important, however organizations are subject to some degree the views, values and attitudes of the populations they serve. Even entertainment media or art-based organizations are bound by a sense of morality and social or civic responsibility. Failure to meet the minimum normative expectations of a given populations views on morality will cost organizations money and status.

I see where I went wrong, organizational justice is the term I am accustomed to. Morality, in my interpretation was external to the organization, as you will note if you read my above post.

In that case my answer is this: if employees feel they are being treated fairly based on organizational perceptions of fairness, these perceptions will have a positive impact on work satisfaction and all of the inherent benefits. IE, reduced turnover, stress, grievances and increased productivity. 

Hi Sudev,

I read the article and what it proposes is a change in thinking at the cultural level. 

Interesting,

Daryn

A positive atmosphere that stimulates creativity and productivity sounds as an ideal model. The stress on productivity can indeed lead to a negative creativity which is also powerful. Finding a system to bend the negative creativity into a positive one is very interesting and needed because when creativity is admitted, there is always something moving on the edges.

I agree with you Rita. I have come across a lot of studies on negative antecedents of creativity, but studying it purely from positive side and from organizational point of view, will help me explore creativity in depth.