Organizational Psychology

In this paper, creativity is explored in three dimensions: as a divergent thinking (J. Gilford), a self-actualization component (A. Maslow), and a flow state (M. Cikszentmihayi). Certain personal properties of the creative employee can be associated with conflict behavior, provoke its occurrence, intensity and readiness to cope. Purpose. The main goal of the research is to study the relationship between employees’ creativity extent and conflict behavior. Method. A quasi-experiment was conductedin the organizational environment. At the first stage, participants filled several forms on creativity and conflict behavior. At the second stage, the respondents participated in case solving in the dyads. The respondent’s partner was the experimenter’s assistant, instructed on inducing a conflict situation. The subjects were mid-level managers of large companies (N = 687, including 358 men and 329 women, average age 36 years). For the creativity extent analysis were selected the cases in the upper and lower 30% of the sample. Results. Creativity as divergent thinking (Guilford, 1959), a component of self-actualization (Maslow, 1999) and a flow state (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999) are statistically related. There are significant differences in the number of attempts to resolve the conflict within a higher and lower extents of creativity. There are significant differences in the fact of conflict emergence within a higher and lower extents of creativity. There is a statistical opportunity to predict the type of coping strategies based on measures of creativity. The value of the results consists, first, in a review of personal creativityat three levels; second, in created author’s methodology for assessing the flow state, which is of valuefor consulting practices in the organization; third, the results of the research allow creating a numberof practical recommendations and educational courses for managing creative employees.