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Amabile receives lifetime achievement award

“To a great degree, Teresa Amabile can be considered to have ‘created’ the field of creativity within organizations as we know it today,” said the award committee. Photo by Russ Campbell

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Teresa Amabile, a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration Emerita, has been selected by the Organizational Behavior (OB) Division of the Academy of Management as the 2018 winner of its Lifetime Achievement Award. Established in 2005, the award recognizes senior scholars who have made exceptional contributions to the organizational behavior discipline throughout their careers.

To be eligible for the award, an individual must have completed his or her Ph.D. at least 20 years ago and be an outstanding scholar who has published in the most important journals and conducted research that has had a significant impact on the field of organizational behavior. Recipients must have contributed not only through their scholarship but through their service to the field.

According to the OB Division’s award committee, “To a great degree, Teresa Amabile can be considered to have ‘created’ the field of creativity within organizations as we know it today, providing both the fundamental theoretical foundations and the rigorous approach to measurement that have guided creativity research for over 30 years.

“Her work has shown how creativity is a central element of human experience and also an important driver of effectiveness in organizational contexts. Her record displays a remarkable range of methods and settings, from deductive laboratory studies to inductive work conducted in organizations.

“Although Professor Amabile’s contributions are remarkable,” the committee continued, “it is clear that she has also facilitated and inspired the work of many other scholars, providing an intellectual framework that has allowed for progress in many other areas by emphasizing creativity as a common concern.”

Members of the award committee also lauded Amabile’s dedication to doctoral students and young scholars, noting that “her record is overflowing with accounts of her selfless approach and the passion, confidence, and inspiration she instills in young scholars. She exemplifies the type of scholar this award is meant to recognize.”