Creative Education
2013. Vol.4, No.3, 185-188
Published Online March 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) DOI:10.4236/ce.2013.43027
The Level of Creativity among Management Employees,
Academic Staff and Artistes and Its Relationship with Gender,
Practical Experience and Age
Nadia Hayel Al-Srour1, Alia Al-Oweidi2
1The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
2The World Islamic Sciences and Education University, Amman, Jordan
Received November 27th, 2012; revised December 30th, 2012; accepted January 12th, 2013
The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of creativity among management employees, Aca-
demic staff and artistes and its relationship with gender, practical experience and age. The sample of the
study consisted of (272) participants, (164) management employees, (18) Academic staff and (90) artists.
The findings of the study showed that the highest performance on the creativity test was for academic
staff followed by artists and finally employees. There were significant statistical differences for the level
of creativity on the total sample attributed to gender in the favor of females. Furthermore, there were dif-
ferences in the favor of the age category (25 - 35). With regard to the years of experience the findings
showed that the creativity level is higher for the employees with less than (10) years’ experience.
Keywords: Creativity; Management Employees; Academic Staff; Artists
Introduction
With the entrance of the third millennium all businesses
(scientific, educational, artistic and administrative) started to
look into competitive advantage which is based in its first
instance on the ability of workers to be innovative and creative.
This led those organizations to develop its concepts and
management styles to prepare the climate for employees to be
creative within an interactive environment contributing in
linking and transferring knowledge and gained accumulative
experiences in order to develop creativity for the best of
developing the society (Ageyev, 2008, 2010).
Torrance (1993) defined creativity as the invention or origi-
nation of any new thing (a product, solution, artwork, literary
work, joke, etc.) that has value. “New” may refer to the indi-
vidual creator or the society or domain within which novelty
occurs. “Valuable”, similarly, may be defined in a variety of
ways.
Renewal had became the essence of creativity for any
organizations including management employees, academic staff
and employees. It is noted that workers in those fields are
sensitive for the problems of performance in their jobs in
Jordan, and this is linked to several factors, including
deficiencies in the search for creative solutions to the problems
they face in their work. In this context management scholars
indicated that nowadays organizations face complicated condi-
tions making their need for creativity is an urgent need, as
managers have be careful on developing the capacity of
employees to contribute to solving problems, and participation
in decision-making, and the generation of new ideas and
teamwork efforts in order to reach creativity in production. The
importance of creativity in academic and administrative work
or even artistic work merged from its complex nature which
includes feeling the problem that needs thinking in order to find
a suitable and creative solution (Proctor, 1991; Sheridan-Rabi-
deau, 2010).
Levels of Creativity.
There are many levels of creativity, those are.
Creativity on the individual level: this means employees had
creative and novel ways to develop their work through normal
characteristics such as intelligence and giftedness or through
gained skills such as problem solving; those characteristics and
skills can be taught and developed while intelligence and
giftedness may help in this process.
Creativity on the group level: as there are fixed groups col-
laborate with each other to apply ideas in order to change the
group performance for the best.
Creativity on the organizations level: there are organizations
with high performance norms where the work flow is ideal and
creative through individual and group efforts.
Many studies had differentiated between two types of
creativity on the originations level, those are.
Technical level: this level is related to products and services
and the production technology led by humans, this means the
production of creative goods and services.
Administrative level: it is related to the organizational
structure and the administrative process in the organization, and
related indirectly to the basic activities of the organization
(Noris, 1996).
Taylor divided creativity into three different levels, those are.
Expressive Creativity: where originality and competence are
important.
Productive Creativity: related to the development of a
machine, a product or a service.
Inventive Creativity: related to new methods.
Innovative Creativity: refers to the continuous development
of ideas and resulting in new skills.
Emergence Creativity: This type rarely happens since it

N. H. Al-SROUR, A. Al-OWEIDI
needs ideas and new and novel assumptions (Sternberg, 2000).
Many studies discuss creativity among management em-
ployees, academic staff members and artistes Al-Tal (2006)
conducted a study to investigate the cognitive, emotional, social
and physical characteristics of creative people in scientific, arts
and literature fields in Jordan. Moreover, studying the
differences in those characteristics according to the creativity
field, gender, age and the economic level. The sample of the
study consisted of (117) creative persons divided into two
groups, the first older creative people and the second is the
young ones. All members had awards on both national and
international levels. The researcher administrated a question-
naire to achieve the aim of this study. The findings of the study
showed that the sample members have a variety of characte-
ristics mostly on those older ones who had cognitive characte-
ristics followed by social ones then emotional ones and finally
physical characteristics. With regard to the young creative
people group the most apparent characteristics are social ones
then cognitive, physical and finally emotional ones.
Also Al-Salmi (2008) studied the effect of practicing time
management in developing administrative creative skills among
secondary schools principals. The sample of the study consisted
of (368) participants representing (20) supervisors, (48) prin-
cipals and (300) teachers. The findings of the study showed that
the agreement on principals’ practice of time management was
in a high level and the agreement degree on the availability of
creative administrative skills was in a high level too.
Corpley (2003) conducted a study to investigate the personal
creative characteristics among a group of scientists creative in
physics and chemistry from one hand and a group of artists in
the field of poetry, story and novels. The sample of the study
consisted of (83) participants, (45) of them are male and female
writers. The findings showed that there are significant statistical
differences between scientists and writers in the favor of writers.
Moreover, the results showed that there are significant
statistical differences between males and females in the total
degree of creativity.
Furthermore, Joseph (2003) investigates the creative cha-
racteristics of creative artists in the fields of music, drama and
arts. The sample of the study consisted of (163) individuals.
The findings of the study showed that the most important
creative characteristics of the sample are the ambition for
knowledge and searching for alternative solutions. Moreover,
there were no significant statistical differences between males
and females on the creative characteristics.
Dawson (2002) studied the characteristics of creative people
in different fields. The sample of the study consisted of (285)
male and female creators who achieve creative accomplish-
ments and received awards in the field of medicine, sciences,
computers, literature and arts. The findings of the study showed
that there are common characteristics between the sample’s
members such as the ability to give attention, adventure, facing
challenges and finding creative solutions.
Carpenter (2002) study aimed to investigate the most
important emotional characteristics for Arts creative people and
compare it with those in the literature field. The sample of the
study consisted of (243) individuals. The findings of the study
showed that the most important emotional characteristics are
empathy, personality strength and honesty. Moreover, there
were differences between both groups for the art group creators.
Moreover, Kanter (1982) conducted a study about the
creative manager in the middle management in a sample of
(165) managers in (5) organizations in order to determine the
type of the managers who contribute in change and the common
factors of any creative organization. The study concluded that
creative and novel managers feel comfortable with change and
creativity grows in the organization where specializations are
integrated with a free flow of information. The characteristics
felt by creators include feeling free with change within their
view and clarity in direction as well as applying management
with share through encouraging others to work as a team.
Khandaqji (2005) studied the relationship between using
management information systems in Jordanian universities and
administrative creativity in those universities. The findings
showed that the level of administrative creativity in Jordanian
universities is high except in strategic planning, administrative
facilitation and encouraging creativity adoption. The findings
showed there are significant statistical differences attributed to
post variables in the favor of managers (unit manager, depart-
ment manager).
Ramadan (1988) studied the determinants of the creative
behavior in the Arabic academy for sciences, technology and
marine transport. The findings showed that there are a positive
strong relationship between the creative behavior and the
demographic variables (leadership, administrative level, type of
work climate, new ideas and training).
Statement of Purpose
Creativity is considered to be one of the most important
factors in the professional and personal success of each
individual. There is no doubt that managers in companies and
organizations have their own effect on their employees since
they are the model to be followed. If the manager showed
creativity in his work this will be reflected on the performance
of the employees. This is true for the academic staff who can
drive their universities to success and even artists in the
different artistic fields influence people through their produc-
tion. Therefore, the current study is investigating the level of
creativity among management employees, academic staff and
artistes and its relationship with gender, practical experience
and age.
Study Importance
The importance of this study is emerged from its aim of
investigating creativity among an important and effective group
in the society those are: management, academic staff and ar-
tists.
Study Questions
What is the level of creativity among management em-
ployees, academic staff and artists?
Are there any significant statistical differences between the
level of creativity among management employees, academic
staff and artists?
Are there any significant statistical differences between the
level of creativity attributed to gender?
Are there any significant statistical differences between the
level of creativity attributed to age?
Are there any significant statistical differences between the
level of creativity attributed to years of experience?
Definition of Terms
Management employees: Departments mangers, section ma-
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N. H. Al-SROUR, A. Al-OWEIDI
nagers in public and private organizations in Jordan.
Academic staff: University teachers with Ph.D. degree in
humanitarian and scientific majors working in Jordanian uni-
versities.
Artists: individuals with accomplishments in painting, acting,
theater, sculpture and registered in the Jordanian artists syn-
dicate.
Study Limitations
Time Limitations: the study is administrated in 2011.
Place limitations: the study is administrated in Amman city.
Procedures
Population
The population of this study consisted of all management
employees in Amman city, academic staff in Jordan University
and artists from the Jordanian artists syndicate.
Study Sample
The sample of the study consisted of (272) individuals, (164)
employees, (18) academic staff and (90) artists.
Instrumentation
Creativity practices scale was used in order to determine the
creativity characteristics, the scale consists of (76) items, an-
swers were (yes, No, not Sure).
Results and Discussion
What is the level of creativity among management emplo-
yees, academic staff and artists?
To answer this questions means, Standard deviations and
ANOVA were calculated to determine differences between
groups.
Table 1 showed that there are significant statistical dif-
ferences between the three groups. Moreover, findings showed
that the highest means on the creativity scale was for faulty
members totaling (91.61) followed by artists (90.46). Mean-
while, the lowest mean was for employees totaling (77.49).
This can be attributed that academic staff are creative because
they has high academic degrees and the nature of their work
encourages creativity because of the opportunities of learning
and acquiring more knowledge. Moreover, academic staff
practice competition among each other leading them to be
creative and they had many workshops and all this can make
them creative people in their work. For employees, creativity is
low due to the routine nature of their work so their performance
will not be novel all times and they are restricted with many
laws that may prevent their creativity.
Are there any significant statistical differences between the
level of creativity attributed to gender?
Table 2 Showed that females are more creative than males
this may be attributed to the nature of females as they are
quieter and more committed in performance and those are
important requirements to meet innovation
Are there any significant statistical differences between the
level of creativity attributed to age?
Table 3 showed that the highest mean on the creative scale
was for the age group first (25 - 35) and the level of per-
formance was close between Category two and three, and this
refers to the individuals at the beginning of their work
exploring their creative ways as intrinsic motivation and the
desire to work increases the level of creativity to work among
individuals.
Table 4 showed the values of Pearson coefficient between
the total degree on creativity scale with age and gender
variable.
The findings indicated that there is a reverse relationship
between creativity from one hand and both age and gender
variables as the level of creativity is decreased with age
Table 1.
Means, standard deviations and ANOVA results.
Group M SD F Sig.
Management 77.40 15.21 21.10 0.00
Artists 90.46 17.71
Faculty 91.61 20.85
Total 82.68 17.66
Table 2.
Means and standard deviations according to gender variable.
Gender M SD
Male 81 17.35
Female 87 15.65
Table 3.
Means and standard deviations according to age variable.
Age M SD F Sig.
25 - 35 91.04 20.11 8.47 0.00
36 - 45 79.67 15.62
+45 80.25 16.71
Total 82.05 17.40
Table 4.
Pearson coefficient results for the total degree of creativity with age and
gender variables.
Pearson coefficient Total Age Experience
Total degree
Age −0.19751
Experience −0.15417 0.804645
Table 5.
Means of performance according to experience variable.
Experience M SD
1 - 10 89.80 21.48
11 - 20 80.98 12.75

N. H. Al-SROUR, A. Al-OWEIDI
188
Table 6.
Tukey test results for post differences according to experience variable.
Experience 11 - 20 21 - 30 +30
1 - 10 8.82* 9.30* 9.79*
11 - 20 0.48 0.97
21 - 30 0.49
increase and years of experience as individuals first start
working with enthusiasm and motivation and by time those
norms decreased due to the routine and other types of pressures
and problems they face in the workplace.
Are there any significant statistical differences between the
level of creativity attributed years of experience?
Table 5 It is noted that the highest mean was for the em-
ployees with (1 - 10) years of experience. The mean of crea-
tivity is starting to decrease with the increase of the experience.
However, differences were close to all groups and this may be
due to the boring and routine environment in workplace with
years spent in the job, and this will reduce the chance of
creativity among employees.
As noted in Table 6 there are significant statistical dif-
ferences in the favor of (1 - 10) years of experience. This may
be explained that employees in this category of experience are
still in the beginning of their career and need to improve
themselves. Moreover, the new employment systems required
them to be creative to keep them in their jobs.
Conclusion
Preparing training workshops to develop creative skills
among management employees.
Conducting more studies about creativity in Jordanian uni-
versities.
Considering creativity as a national goal providing all the
abilities to develop creativity among individuals in all levels.
Encouraging creative academic staff through different in-
centives.
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