Assessing Job Candidates’ Creativity: Propositions and Future Research Directions Anna Malakate, Constantine Andriopoulos and Manto Gotsi Identifying and selecting creative employees is of key importance in today’s high-pace busi- ness environment. Yet, little is known about how assessors in organizational settings evaluate the creative potential of job candidates. In this paper we review the extant literature on individual and team creativity in order to identify criteria (cues) against which job candidates’ creativity could be assessed. We argue that the creative potential of job candidates could be evaluated against four key dimensions (the creative individual, the creative product, the creative process and the creative environment) and call for empirical research to further explore and test our propositions in practice. Introduction A t the dawn of the 21st century organiza- tions are more eager than ever before to sustain high levels of creative ability. Rapid technological advancements, shorter product life-cycles and intense competition in the business environment have propelled the importance of creativity to unprecedented heights (Amabile et al., 1996). Novel and use- ful ideas are, therefore, increasingly becom- ing a precious commodity and employees who generate them are sought-after resources (Andriopoulos, 2003). In an attempt to identify creative individu- als, early studies have focused to a large extent on personal dispositions and other individual characteristics that may predict creative achievement (MacKinnon, 1960, 1962; McDer- mid, 1965; Keller & Holland, 1978). Studies have attempted to list personality correlates of creative productivity as well as to collect bio- graphical information that might predict later creative behaviour. Research subsequently moved away from studying creativity solely from the individual perspective and shifted to a greater recognition of contextual-situational factors that may enhance or prohibit indi- vidual and/or team creativity. For instance, contemporary researchers from different dis- ciplines identify relationships between creativ- ity and innovation in organizational settings and corporate strategy (Dougherty & Hardy, 1996), leadership (Redmond, Mumford & Teach, 1993; Amabile et al., 1996), structure (Burns & Stalker, 1994), climate (Amabile & Gryskiewicz, 1989), culture (Tushman & O’Reilly, 2002; Flynn & Chatman, 2004), feed- back (Farris, 1972) and resources (Nohari & Gulati, 1996). Creativity is, therefore, increasingly viewed as a social phenomenon, often necessitating teamwork in organizational settings (e.g., Gilson & Shalley, 2004). In this respect, team knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) appear as key ingredients of creative achievement. Stevens and Campion (1999), for instance, argue that interpersonal and self-management KSAs are critical correlates of creative perfor- mance. On the one hand, conflict resolution, collaborative problem solving and communi- cation are important interpersonal factors which distinguish a good teamworker from a bad one. On the other hand, goal setting and performance management together with plan- ning and task coordination knowledge, skills and abilities make up the necessary self- management characteristics that creative employees should possess. Additionally, pre- vious experience in teams (Athanasaw, 2003; ASSESSING JOB CANDIDATES’ CREATIVITY 307 Volume 16 Number 3 2007 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8691.2007.00437.x © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing