Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [195]
Most organizations strive to hire team players who get along well with others. Is this wise where you are looking for creativity in an advertising environment?
Here are some traits from studies of creative researchers in psychology and related areas (Jackson and Rushton 1987, pp. 143–6):
Less-creative researchers
More-creative researchers
• fun-loving
• compulsive
• sociable
• dominant
• meek
• aggressive
• supportive
• anxious
• extraverted
• ambitious
• aesthetically sensitive
• independent
After reviewing research studies on the topic, Ng (2001) concluded that “‘nice people’ are not creative and creative people are not ‘nice.’” For example, in one study a personality test was administered to 58 individuals in the creative departments of prominent UK advertising agencies and small design groups— presumably jobs that require creativity. The results were compared with those of 70 managers in mainstream UK corporations taking the same test—jobs that presumably needed lesser degrees of creativity. The people in the “creativity jobs” scored much higher on neuroticism, hostility, and depression (Gelade 1997).
David Ogilvy was widely regarded as a genius in advertising, and I agree. The story goes that he wondered if it was true. After all, he had flunked out of Oxford. So he decided to find out exactly how smart he was, expecting to learn that his IQ was approximately 145. However, he reported that he scored 96 (Business Strategy Review 2005). It is difficult to believe Ogilvy’s story; after all, he had been admitted to Oxford. I suspect that he was trying to make a point that people should be judged based on performance, not on IQ. Very high intelligence does not play an important role in creativity. Even among research scientists, the evidence suggests that IQs beyond 120 do not play an important role in creativity.
After summarizing decades of research on personnel selection, Meehl (1956) advised that when deciding whom to hire, you should make a decision before meeting the candidates. Another half-century of research supported Meehl’s advice (Grove et al. 2000). This advice leads you to focus on information about a candidate’s ability to perform the job. When you meet a person, you are distracted by features that might be irrelevant to the job, such as height, accent, looks, weight, and gender. Thus, some orchestras have applicants play behind a curtain when auditioning, a procedure that has enabled more women to get these jobs.
Because of their difficult personalities, it would seem to be especially important to make hiring decisions prior to meeting candidates when trying to hire creative people. One recommendation is to have them submit portfolios or other material evidence of creativity prior to a personal appearance. You might also consider having an administrator screen out irrelevant resume information such as religion, race, age, gender, and nationality.
If the work must be done in a group, consider the type of group. For example, might it be useful to have a diversified team working on a campaign? A meta-analysis of the performance on a variety of tasks compared groups that were formed to have “task-related” diversity with those formed to emphasize “bio-demographic” diversity. Task diversity groups were superior on quality and productivity (based on 15 and nine experimental comparisons, respectively). Bio-demographic diversity did not aid performance; in fact, there was a slight negative relationship (Horwitz and Horwitz 2007). In summary, look for people who bring different skills and different knowledge, rather than looking for bio-demographic diversity. Note how this policy conflicts with policies in large organizations. For example, my industry celebrates bio-demographic diversity, which decreases creativity, and goes out of