Publications

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24 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 24

face constraints in their attempts to grow. August 2013 Mind, Work, and Life: A Festschrift on the Occasion of Howard Gardner's 70th Birthday Big C, Little C, Howard, and Me: Approaches to Understanding Creativity By: Amabile, Teresa... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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Organizational Behavior - Doctoral

University, Questrom School of Business, Management and Organizations Advisors: Julie Battilana (Chair), Lakshmi Ramarajan , and Daniel Schneider Jeff Steiner, 2023 New York University, Stern School of Business, Assistant Adjunct Professor Advisors: Lakshmi Ramarajan... View Details

January 1996
Background Note

Creativity and Innovation in Organizations

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Creativity, the production of new and useful ideas by individuals or teams, can appear in many forms and many functions within firms of all kinds--from entrepreneurial start-ups to well-established enterprises. This note describes the varieties of creativity in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Design; Situation or Environment; Creativity

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September 2020
Article

Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, and a World of Surprises

By: Teresa M. Amabile

In recent years, progress has been made toward AI Creativity, which I define as the production of highly novel, yet appropriate, ideas, problem solutions, or other outputs by autonomous machines. I argue that organizational researchers of creativity and innovation... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; AI Creativity; Computer Science; Organizational Behavior; Psychology; Creativity; Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning

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2016
Article

The Dynamic Componential Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations: Making Progress, Making Meaning

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Michael G. Pratt

Leveraging insights gained through a burgeoning research literature over the past 28 years, this paper presents a significant revision of the model of creativity and innovation in organizations published in Research in Organizational Behavior in 1988. This... View Details

Keywords: Progress; Meaningful Work; Affect; Creativity; Organizations; Innovation and Invention; Motivation and Incentives

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Placement - Doctoral

N/A, and Teresa M. Amabile Elliot Stoller Organizational Behavior, 2023 Placement: University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, School of Government Dissertation: Centralized... View Details

Article

What Really Motivates Workers

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steve J. Kramer

This essay appears in "The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2010," which is compiled by this journal in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The ten problems and the innovative solutions are discussed in each essay. This particular essay describes research... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Invention; Research; Performance Improvement; Managerial Roles; Motivation and Incentives; Creativity

01 Feb 1997
News

Shaping the Future of Business: Entrepreneurial Evolution at HBS

every field of business endeavor. Their impact has been significant and broad-based: according to research by Associate Professor Amarnath V. Bhidé, more than one-third of HBS alumni currently manage their own firms twenty years after... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry and Susan Young; profiles by Garry Emmons

30 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 30

Because the current empirical literature does not account for this intertemporal channel, it may underestimate the total work disincentive effect of SSDI. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2295538 J. Richard Hackman (1940-2013) By: Wageman, Ruth, and... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

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Health Care Initiative - Health Care

2025 | Harvard Gazette How to Gently Stop Someone Who Talks Way Too Much Re: Alison Wood Brooks 13 Apr 2025 | Washington Post Mel Robbins’ 7-Day Reset (That’s Backed By Science) Re: Teresa View Details

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Faculty & Research - Health Care

News Funding Today, Entrepreneurship Tomorrow. Or Not. Re: Jeff Bussgang 02 May 2025 | Harvard Gazette How to Gently Stop Someone Who Talks Way Too Much Re: Alison Wood Brooks 13 Apr 2025 | Washington Post Mel Robbins’ 7-Day Reset (That’s Backed View Details

March 1983
Article

Brilliant but Cruel: Perceptions of Negative Evaluators

By: T. M. Amabile

Using edited excerpts from actual negative and positive book reviews, this research examined the hypothesis that negative evaluators of intellectual products will be perceived as more intelligent than positive evaluators. The results strongly supported the hypothesis.... View Details

Keywords: Social Psychology; Situation or Environment; Performance Evaluation; Perception; Status and Position; Attitudes; Prejudice and Bias; Power and Influence

May 2011
Article

The Power of Small Wins

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers' diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and... View Details

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Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

integrity. Keywords: Ethics ; Research Citation Register to Read Related Bazerman, Max. "An Insider’s Perspective on How to Reduce Fraud in the Social Sciences." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 53, no. 1 (Spring 2025): 6–10. More Publications Faculty Max H. Bazerman... View Details

1984
Article

Children's Artistic Creativity: Effects of Choice in Task Materials

By: T. M. Amabile and J. Gitomer

Preschool boys and girls made collages using a subset of a large array of materials. Half of the children were allowed to choose those materials they would use. For the rest of the children, the choice was made by the experimenter. Children in the no-choice condition... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Early Childhood Education; Social Psychology; Decision Choices and Conditions

06 Mar 2012
News

How to completely, utterly destroy an employee’s work life

December 2005 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Nest Fresh Eggs (A)

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Victoria Winston

Cyd Szymanski's cage-free egg business was threatened by large caged-hen companies that saw new profit potential in the industry she had helped build. Szymanski had based her company, Nest Fresh Eggs, on a strong personal belief that people deserved healthier... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives

Educators