Book Release: Embracing Creative Change -- Why Top Executives Desire It; But Often Reject It

“Creative Change: Why We Resist It…How We Can Embrace It,” a new book written by Jennifer Mueller, Associate Professor of Management in the University of San Diego School of Business, has been published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Mueller’s book examines why corporate CEOs, top executives and other business leaders say they want creativity yet chronically reject creative solutions and embrace instead the familiar. Mueller’s research also reveals that it’s not just CEOs, but educators, scientists and others who desire but often struggle to accept new and creative ideas. 

Mueller diagnoses the hidden innovation barrier and offers solutions including:

• a four-step process (and a fifth lifeline) to self-disrupt your current mindset and recognize creativeopportunity
• an idea-pitching framework aimed at helping you overcome other people's sticky preference for the status quo
• key organizational levers to disrupt the cultural beliefs holding your company back
• tips to more accurately recognize creativeleaders who can lead organizations in productive new directions
• strategies to generate ideas without harming your ability to make them count with the decision makers.

Mueller teaches organizational behavior and leadership classes at both the undergraduate and MBA levels in the USD School of Business. In addition to creativity, her research examines the costs and benefits of collaboration in teams. 

Mueller holds a PhD in Developmental and Social Psychology from Brandeis University. She has published in Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and Psychological Science.  She is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Psychology as well as Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.  

About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.