AbstractsEconomics

Previous research has shown that several factors of the work environment have the ability to  positively  influence  the  creativity  of  employees.  However,  these  research  findings  are generalized  and  do  not  consider  the  needs  of  female  employees.  Concentrating  on  the organizational and social factors of a creative work environment, the purpose of this study is  to  investigate  if  the  factors  proposed  by  research  apply  to  female  employees  and  to identify additional elements that are of special importance to women. Based  on  existing  literature  the  authors  created  a  working  model  including  five organizational and four social factors, namely autonomy, resources, structure and systems, pressure, organizational and supervisory encouragement as the organizational factors and diversity, conflicts, communication and work group encouragement as social factors.  In order to meet the purpose of this study a qualitative research method was applied to test the  effect  of  our  working  model  on  female  creativity.  The  authors  conducted  ten  semi-structured interviews with female employees in start-ups in Berlin, Germany. The results revealed that the presented organizational and social factors do have the ability to  enhance  the  creativity  of  women.  Furthermore,  four  new  elements  appeared  that  are essential for the female creativity: atmosphere, team spirit, communication and soft formal structures. These findings provide a good starting point not only for executives in creating a creative work environment for female employees but also for future research in this field.