161 Volume 45 Number 3 Third Quarter 2011 SCOTT G. ISAKSEN HANS J. AKKERMANS Creative Climate: A Leadership Lever for Innovation ABSTRACT The working atmosphere within an organization has an important influence on its level of innovative productivity. Organizational leaders influence innovative productivity as well as the climate for creativity and innovation. This exploratory study included 140 respondents from 103 different organizations, 31 industries, and 10 countries, all of whom completed an online survey focused on examining the intervening nature of the climate for creativity and innovation. First, those who perceived more leadership support for innovation had significantly better creative climate scores. Second, those who perceived higher levels of innovative productivity also had better climate scores. Finally, organizational climate as an intervening variable between leadership behavior and innovation was confirmed through partial correlation and mediation analysis. The findings of this study support the pivotal role that creative climate plays between leadership behavior and innovative productivity. Keywords: Leadership behavior, organizational climate, creativity, innovation INTRODUCTION The interest in leading and managing for creativity and innovation is growing among practitioners and academics (Byrne, Mumford, Barrett, & Vessey, 2009; Gilson, 2008; Zhou & Shalley, 2008). The purpose of this study was to focus on how leaders and managers affect innovation and creativity through their efforts to deliberately foster a work climate that supports creative thinking. This study also explored the mediating role that climate plays between leadership as an antecedent factor influencing the intervening variable of climate, which, in turn, affects innovation. Innovation is a key factor for growth and economic development. In fact, some see organizational innovation as the most important avenue to growth (Drucker, 1985; Kelley & Littman, 2005; Tushman & O’Reilly, 1997). The