Making creative work: Networks that keep creative people creative.

摘要

This study was an investigation of the social network characteristics that are associated with creativity and asked the question: What, if any, appear to be the characteristics of social networks that are associated the creativity?The subjects were 20 industrial design professionals having a minimum of seven years in practice. The study examined the characteristics of size, composition, and affiliations as they related to the industrial designer's network. The Abbreviated Adult Torrance Test (AATT) assigned a creative index to each of the industrial designers. Finally, the study compared the egocentric networks of four most creative industrial designers to the networks of four least creative industrial designers.Data were analyzed using spreadsheet analysis to examine network size, composition, and affiliation. Administration, analysis, and interpretation of the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults followed the publisher guidelines. Once the sociometric data and Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults were collected and analyzed, the participants were identified according to their creative index. Network diagrams of the four Highest Creative Index scores were compared to the network diagrams of the four Lowest Creative Index scores.Findings from the research concluded that the industrial designers surveyed were creative people. The Creative Index scores gathered using the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults confirmed that the majority of the industrial designers revealed levels of creativity ranging from Above Average to Substantial. Highly creative industrial designers manifested open and entrepreneurial networks and exhibited a variety of network connections and tie strength. Furthermore, the study revealed, that affiliations were highest among the Lower Creative Index Industrial Designers and suggested that the Lower Creative Index Industrial Designers augmented, as well as, bridged their lesser creative , dense and redundant networks through their affiliations.This study contributed to the research on social networks and clarified that there is a significant correlation between the connections associated with an "open or entrepreneurial" network and creativity.