Verena Krause researches the antecedents and consequences of creativity. Creativity involves the generation of new and appropriate problem solutions—an effort that is becoming increasingly important as the business environment continues to change rapidly and become more competitive. Accordingly, in Verena’s first stream of research, she investigates antecedents to creative performance. In her dissertation research, she found that creative solutions are most likely to emerge when individuals retain their own, unique point of view, rather than attempt to adopt the perspective of another individual. She shows that people come up with less original solutions when they attempt to take the perspective of another person because doing so triggers a cooperative mindset.

In a second stream of research, Verena turns the tables to think about creativity not only as a dependent variable, but also as an independent variable that might have sweeping consequences for a wide range of psychological, interpersonal, and behavioral outcomes at work. For example, she shows that the opportunity to do creative work might actually feel liberating and serve as an important outlet that mitigates psychological burdens.