The expanded domain for employee creativity refers to Amabile’s concept of
‘‘garden variety’’ contributions – ‘‘where ordinary individuals are doing everyday
things in appropriate ways that are somewhat novel . . . ’’
Correspondingly, other researchers have described creativity as a universal quality in
the workplace, regardless of job description or organizational status
These tasks are illustrated by Stafford’s (1998) examples of helpful
problem solving in customer service settings or cost saving benefit designs by
insurance underwriters. Stafford also hypothesized that such ‘‘garden variety’’
employees would need the strong presence of synergistic extrinsic motivators to fulfill
their workplace potential
This viewpoint is congruent with existing knowledge management models of innovation where tacit knowledge is shared among
workers and expressed in creative capital that advances performance excellence