Perception of Creative Identities by Leaders and Non-leaders: Consequences for Theory and Practice of Manage-ment

Abstract

Purpose: The perception of creative identities of leaders, creators, entrepreneurs, manag-ers, and artists determines the attitude towards thinking and motivations of decisions of individuals with and without leadership factors. Creativity, a crucial factor of today's soci-ety and economic development, is a widely requested feature of individuals and groups – particularly in business organisations. Design/methodology/approach: An international interdisciplinary quantitative research of 160 leaders and non-leaders. The chi-square test of independence was used at p < 0.001. Findings: There are no statistical variances in assessing the creative identities of a leader, creator, entrepreneur, manager, and artist between individuals with and without leader’s identities. The leadership potential exists in each individual. The additional qualitative analysis revealed that individuals with and without a leader’s identity see particular fea-tures of these identities slightly differently. Practical implications: The results can be used to understand the qualities of a leader’s identity and the perception of creative identities by individuals, groups, and societies dom-inated by persons with and without leadership factors. The applicability of the findings, mainly due to the role of leadership in today’s world as potential laying in each individual, is broad. Originality value: The following groups may practically benefit the study's outcomes: 1) Managers desiring to understand the discrepancies in the explored identities' percep-tions by groups, organisations, and societies dominated by leaders and non-leaders. 2) Creative individuals (leaders, creators, entrepreneurs, managers, artists) for a) better un-derstanding the diverse levels of their personality with highlighting the matter of complex identity, b) discrepancies of own identity with the general perception of a particular role by leaders and non-leaders. 3) Scholars wanting to investigate the correspondences and dif-ferences between identity and its perception regarding leadership, creativity, entrepreneur-ship, managing, and artistry by leaders and non-leaders. If leadership is a potential exist-ing in each individual, there is a need to catalyse particular triggers, not just looking for ready-made leaders (contrary to non-leaders). The education process of leaders should be determined to reveal a leader's potential based on the inspirations and to uncover the mo-tifs of the leader’s activity.