UC Irvine

Rapid technological change, global environmental concerns, and other dramatic ecological and societal changes are rendering previous conceptualizations of environments, and the relationships between environment and behavior, inadequate. Following a brief review of earlier conceptualizations of environments, distinctions between the terms context, environment, behavior setting and situation are drawn. A contextual model that focuses on the behaviors of individuals or groups in response to a prompt, and the personal, social or physical factors that might affect them, is developed. Two types of contextual change are explored: gradual, evolutionary contextual shifts, and sudden or dramatic contextual transformations. Application of a more fully contextual approach to the field of creativity is considered, and an example of organizational creativity focusing on developing and implementing customer service recommendations is used to illustrate the model. A concluding section considers the research implications of a more fully contextual approach to conceptualizing environments. © 1998 Academic Press.