Kreativa föräldrar - En fallstudie om föräldraskapets och föräldraledighetens effekt på förälderns kreativitet i arbetet
Parenting and parental leave in a career context is a highly topical subject in which discussions about gender equality and corporate discrimination against parents occur daily. Media has recently raised the theory of parenting and parental leave as having positive impacts on personal development, such as creativity enhancement, which may promote the individual's work performance. Despite the subject's significant value for society and organizations, no scientific research is to be found. This paper examines how an individual's creativity at work is affected when becoming a parent and if parental leave has any contributory effect. Furthermore, the paper identifies and scrutinizes four creativity theories that may help explain these changes in creativity. Through an explorative qualitative case study, three parents were studied and compared. The study adds to the research on creativity, presents a new territory of the phenomena and gives support for the hypothesis that parenting and parental leave have a positive effect on an individual's creativity at work. Changes in creativity at work could be explained by an increase in cognitive flexibility due to an enhanced level of positive affect as well as challenging and diversifying experiences. Parenting was also shown to have a positive impact on an individual's self-esteem at work, which in turn contributes to a decreased degree of self-censorship and thus a higher level of creativity. The enhanced self-esteem is also linked to negative effects in terms of lower intrinsic motivation to perform at work. Finally, a low cognitive distance from work during parental leave lead to a positive impact on the individual's creativity.