Creativity and Life Satisfaction in Spanish University Students. Effects of an Emotionally Positive and Creative Program

There is an increasing demand by society that university students demonstrate competitive skills to enable them to achieve greater success when entering the workplace. Creativity and life satisfaction correlate positively with academic performance, productivity, and excellence in the working environment. The presence of creativity and emotional intelligence in the curriculum and teaching methods in Spanish universities, however, is surprisingly lacking. Studies that examine gender differences in these variables provide conflicting results. The purpose of our research is to analyse the changes produced in both creativity and life satisfaction in university students by a positive emotional and creative intervention and explore individual differences by gender. The methodology used was a quasi-experimental pre- test/post- test design with experimental/control groups. Three hundred university students (23% men and 77% women) from the Community of Madrid (Spain) completed three exercises that evaluated creativity and life satisfaction. The results show significantly higher results in creativity and life satisfaction in women, who continued to achieve high results after the intervention. Finally, we discuss the need for emotional and creative education in universities and focus on the employability and the guarantee of equal opportunities through the development of these competencies.

Words and Silence in Job Mentoring

Today, economic sustainability is a social priority and it implies positive, rewarding, and creative relationships in the workplace. Creativity, innovation, and subjective welfare will remain extremely important for sustainable production models in an age of technological acceleration, ecological threats, and digital globalization. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new ways to organize work, this is even more important. The basis for this is to be found in education, especially in secondary and higher education. Good mentoring is becoming essential in professional development; this activity is based on words and silence, using corporate and individual coaching tools to open new doors of creativity. Following Peter Drucker’s (1954) work in management thinking and the approach of positive psychologists, this paper presents a new concept of sustainable working relationships for the 21st century based on words and narratives.

When and why does a “poker face” facilitate workplace creativity?

PurposeThe authors investigate when and why a subordinate's expressive suppression facilitates workplace creativity, building on the conservation of resources theory and considering the effect of the supervisor's expressive suppression and time pressure as boundary conditions.Design/methodology/approachMultisource data were collected from 132 teams in northwestern China, including 132 supervisors and 648 subordinates. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the effects.FindingsThe subordinate’s expressive suppression was positively related to their workplace creativity. Challenge time pressure was positively related to workplace creativity, and the subordinate’s expressive suppression was positively related to workplace creativity when challenge time pressure was lower and the supervisor's expressive suppression was higher. Hindrance time pressure was negatively related to workplace creativity, and a positive relationship between a subordinate's expressive suppression and workplace creativity was also found with less hindrance time pressure and greater expressive suppression by their supervisor.Originality/valueBy examining the role of the supervisor as a source of downward spillovers in various time pressure contexts, the study explains why a subordinate’s suppression facilitates workplace creativity from the conservation of resources perspective.

Applying mindfulness to grow greater numbers of creative workplaces

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper concentrates on measuring a real estate industry sample group's attentional self-regulation and experiential orientation, as well as their creative idea generation abilities by comparing a treatment group's experience of receiving weekly mindfulness training with a control group that didn't receive the training until a later time. Mindfulness training was found to result in increased mindful attention and awareness over a five week period, and at the same time increased workplace creativity both in the moment and over the longer term. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Exploring the Effects of Policies Promoting Political Correctness in the Workplace

As a concept, political correctness has supporters and detractors. In the current study, company policies aimed at promoting political correctness in organizations are examined. First, the nature of political correctness is explored to provide a clearer understanding of what is connoted by the term. Second, the effects of organizational policies promoting political correctness on perceived creativity in the workplace are examined. The findings, based on 215 men and 205 women, reveal a two-factor structure to political correctness: inclusiveness and micro-aggressions. Differences emerge for policies that promote inclusiveness and those aligned with micro-aggressions with regard to perceived workplace creativity.