Putting the 'I' in Creativity Assessments: the Impact of Identities on Creativity Assessments and Willingness to Implement Ideas

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2022

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Abstract

Managers’ assessments of the creativity of ideas are crucial to organizations. Research suggests that there are distinct individual differences in the way managers assess creative ideas, yet it remains an under-researched topic. One such difference, shared social identities (e.g., nationality or organizational membership), can alter perceptions of creative ideas, yet no research has yet examined the other form of identities, role identities, despite research showing that role identities can influence the generation of ideas. I examined the effects of creative and economic managerial role identities on creativity assessments because past research shows these two identities play important roles in creativity. I theorized that the activation of either a creative or economic role identity would affect creativity assessments in three ways. First, that the activation of a creative managerial role identity would positively moderate the relationship between idea novelty and creativity assessments, while the activation of an economic managerial role identity would negatively moderate the relationship between idea novelty and creativity assessments. Second, that social comparison orientation would negatively moderate that relationship. Third, that the activation of a creative managerial role identity would strengthen the positive effects of creativity assessments on managers’ willingness to implement the idea, while the activation of an economic managerial role identity would weaken the positive effects of creativity assessments on managers’ willingness to implement the idea. I proposed several alternative hypotheses which examined whether trait levels of creative and economic managerial role identities had a significant effect on these relationships. I conducted four online experiments to test these hypotheses. The result of these four experiments did not support the hypotheses. However, across the four studies there was consistent evidence of a direct positive effect of trait creative managerial role identity on creativity assessments and an indirect positive effect on willingness to implement through higher creativity assessments.

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