Facilitating employee creativity in the library environment: An important managerial concern for library administrators

The purpose of this paper is to provide library administrators, library researchers and practitioners with an in‐depth review of the conceptual and practical tools required to engage the creative potential of their staff members.

The paper reviews the important concepts involving employee creativity and its successful management in the organizational setting. This is accomplished by reviewing the relevant literature assembled from the social, psychological, management, organizational and library sciences.

Intrinsic motivation is the primary driver of individual creativity and drives organizational learning, transformation and innovation. Library administrators are directly responsible for creating and sustaining an organizational culture that facilitates the intrinsic‐motivation of all library staff members. Organizational democracy and employee participation may increase and sustain intrinsic‐motivation while coercive management behaviors tend to reduce this vital catalyst.

The preponderance of the literature consulted for this article was assembled from sources outside the field of library management. Therefore, library administrators who would use this information to enhance the creative activities of their employees are cautioned to develop small pilot‐phase projects to gain practical experience with the concepts contained in this paper.

The paper provides a useful review of the appropriate literature related to employee creativity. This paper is among the first to relate the concepts of intrinsic‐motivation, managerial style and creativity to organizational learning and transformation in the library environment.