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Competing theoretical models and equivocal evidence leave unanswered questions regarding stressors' effect on creativity. The present meta-analysis of 76 experimental studies (including 82 independent samples) aims to clarify this association and identify factors that may explain differences between studies. Our results suggest that the effect of stressors on creative performance depends on how stress-inducing the stressor is and what type of stress is induced. We found a curvilinear relationship between evaluative stress and creativity such that low evaluative contexts increased creative performance over control conditions, whereas highly evaluative contexts decreased creative performance. We found a linearly negative relationship between uncontrollability and creativity such that more uncontrollability decreased creative performance. The results suggest that stressors' effect on creativity is more complex than previously assumed and points to the need for understanding boundary conditions that shed light on inconsistent findings.

Despite advice to avoid doing so, email senders intentionally and unintentionally communicate emotion. Email characteristics make miscommunication likely, and I argue that receivers often misinterpret work emails as more emotionally negative or neutral than intended. Drawing on the computer-mediated and nonverbal communication, emotion, and perception literature, I introduce a theoretical framework describing what factors make miscommunication most likely, how emotional miscommunication affects organizations, and how employees can improve the accuracy of emotional communication in emails. Employees are increasingly likely to use and prefer electronic mail (email) to communicate with coworkers, customers, and other colleagues. The proliferation of email for business communication is likely due to some advantages, such as flexibility and asynchrony, it has over other communication media. Consequently, email has increased information sharing in organizations (Rice, 1987; Sproull & Kiesler, 1986) and has improved productivity among employees separated in time and place (Higa, Sheng, Shin, & Figueredo, 2000). However, the proliferation of email communication has also introduced some challenges not associated with other communication media. Research and theory suggest one likely deleterious effect of email use is harm to workplace relationships. Friedman and Currall (2003) have argued that the characteristics of email increase the likelihood of conflict escalation among those communicating by email. In their study of faculty and staff at a university teaching and research institute, Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman (1998) found that as email use increased, the overall volume of all forms of communication decreased, mostly because of fewer "greetings" and other informal interactions between

This study examines the relationships among positive psychological traits (hope, optimism, resiliency), transformational leadership, and firm performance in high-technology start-up (n = 49) and established firm (n = 56) contexts, using structural equation modeling. Results reveal that the positive psychological traits of CEOs positively relate to transformational leadership ratings. Furthermore, the extent to which leaders are rated as transformational fully mediates the relationship between the leaders' positive psychological traits and their firms' performance. Last, transformational leadership is more strongly related to firm performance in start-up than in established firms. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

SummaryAccording to Snyder's hope theory, high hope individuals possess more goal-related strategies and are more motivated to achieve their goals than their low hope counterparts. Therefore, we examined the relationship between hope and job performance using three different samples of employees of different job levels and industries. We found that more hopeful sales employees, mortgage brokers, and management executives had higher job performance, as measured a year later, even after controlling for their self-efficacy and cognitive ability. In a fourth study, we examined if more hopeful employees attempt to solve problems differently than do those with less hope. Higher hope management executives produced more and better quality solutions to a work-related problem, suggesting that hopefulness may help employees when they are confronted with problems and encounter obstacles at work.