CLF Seminar by Kimberly Jaussi (Binghamton University)

Building capabilities for creativity and innovation: an identity perspective for creative

Research on the role of identity processes in leadership and followership has grown significantly across the last several decades (e.g., Epitropaki, Kark, Mainemelis & Lord, 2017), as has scholarly work regarding creative leadership and followership (e.g., Mainemelis, Epitropaki, & Kark, 2018; Mainemelis, Kark & Epitropaki, 2015; Jaussi, 2023; Randel & Jaussi, 2019). These two bodies of work have recently been brought together (Koseoglu, Liu, & Shalley, 2017) to demonstrate how a leader’s creativity influences a subordinate’s creativity indirectly through creative role identity, but research has yet to consider how leaders with creativity and innovation agendas can use these two growing knowledge bases to build specific capabilities involved with creativity and innovation in their organizations. For example, while hiring practices and skill building approaches would suggest acquiring and developing talent in areas such as market analysis, data analytics and competitive intelligence, an identity approach offers different and valuable new insights about how to further enhance these capabilities and practices to help achieve strategic agendas that involve creativity and innovation. 

About the Speaker
Kimberly S. Jaussi, Ph.D. is an associate professor of Organizational Behavior and Leadership in the School of Management at Binghamton University and a fellow in the Center for Leadership Studies. She received her doctorate from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and her undergraduate degree in economics from Smith College. Her research interests include strategic leadership for creativity and innovation, unconventional leader behavior, followership for creativity, organizational commitment, and identity and diversity in teams.

Her research has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Leadership Quarterly, the Journal of Organization and Leadership Studies, and Organizational Dynamics. In addition, Kim serves on the editorial board of The Leadership Quarterly, has published several book chapters, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal. In collaboration with a team of researchers from Binghamton University, Kim co-authored The Dream Weavers: Strategy Focused Leadership, (Information Age Press, 2004), a book based on interviews with over 75 CEOs of mid-large size companies in the U.S. and Israel which examines strategic leadership as it happens at the top of organizations. Prior to attending USC, Kim worked closely with Judy B. Rosener, Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine researching diversity and male/female differences in leadership. During her graduate studies at USC, Kim worked at the Center for Effective Organizations studying learning organizations and technology-focused employees.

Dr. Kimberly S. Jaussi’s research focuses on how the behaviors of leaders at different hierarchical levels in the organization influence followers in efforts to align employee efforts and performance with the strategic focus of the organization. Specifically, she’s interested in the design implications for the cognitive and self-concept related drivers of employee creativity and innovation, strategic thinking, and employee attitudes (e.g. commitment). She’s also interested in the areas of diversity and identity in teams, as well as leadership development for effective inspiration, development, and stimulation of others.

This research introduces four identities of leaders and followers that relate to creativity and innovation and offers theory about how those identities are created and enacted at different levels of analysis in organizations. Specifically, it examines the externally focused practices of environmental scanning and future trend identification, and considers how identities relating to those practices help foster the ongoing enactment of those activities in the organization.