Social context: Key to understanding culture’s effects on creativity RIKKI NOURI 1,2 * , MIRIAM EREZ 1 , CYNTHIA LEE 3,4 , JIAN LIANG 5 , BRENDAN D. BANNISTER 3 AND WARREN CHIU 4 1 Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel 2 Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel 3 Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 4 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China 5 Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Summary This paper proposes that the social context moderates the effect of culture on creativity by drawing on the constructivist dynamic approach. We assess creativity by the level of fluency, originality, and elaboration on the usefulness and appropriateness of ideas in three contexts: working under a supervisor, in a group, and alone. We hypothesized that in high power distance cultures, working under a supervisor inhibits creativity, whereas in individualistic cultures, the presence of peers attenuates creativity. Results from two parallel experi- ments, one in the United States (N =79) and the other in China (N = 83), partially support the hypotheses. The Chinese originality level was significantly lower when working under a supervisor than when working alone. American subjects generated fewer ideas and elaborated less when working in the presence of peers and elabo- rated less in the presence of peers than when under a supervisor. We conclude that the social context moderates the culture–creativity relationship by making consensual cultural values more accessible in a social context than when working alone. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: creativity; originality; fluency; elaboration; culture social context; dynamic constructivism If balance and harmony are reached heaven and earth will be in place. The Book of Means, Confucius, 551–479 BC. (Cited by Chen, 2001, p. 88). Creativity and innovation have become important sources of competitiveness, and global companies seek to locate their R&D centers in countries whose cultures support entrepreneurship and innovation. The majority of research on culture and creativity has focused on comparisons between Western and East Asian cultures (Zhou & Su, 2010). Yet, there are inconsistent findings on the effect of culture on creativity, with culture defined as a system of shared values and norms that sets the rules of expected behaviors (Erez & Earley, 1993), and creativity defined as the generation of novel ideas that are useful and appropriate (Amabile, 1996). Research in support of the effect of culture on creativity asserts that the cultural values of collectivism and high power distance inhibit creativity (Goncalo & Staw, 2006; Harzing & Hofstede, 1996; Jaquish & Ripple, 1984; Niu, Zhang, & Yang, 2007). However, other studies have found no significant effects of culture on creativity (Chen et al., 2002; Niu & Sternberg, 2002; Nouri et al., 2013; Riquelme, 2002). Such inconsistencies support a recent call made by several researchers (Morris & Leung, 2010; Zhou & Su, 2010) to identify the moderators of the culture–creativity relationship. Another line of research identified work context effects on creativity, including goals for creative performance (Shalley, 1995), rewards (Eisenberger & Rhoades, 2001), and the presence of supervisors and peers (Madjar, Oldham, & Pratt, 2002). However, none of these studies have examined the work context by looking at the culture interaction effect on creativity. Of particular importance is the social context (Zhou & Su, 2010), because it is likely to activate the shared cultural values and norms that guide proper behaviors in a particular social context. Therefore, *Correspondence to: Rikki Nouri, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. E-mail: rikki.nouri@gmail.com Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 05 March 2013 Revised 26 January 2014, Accepted 30 January 2014 Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. (2014) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.1923 Special Issue Article