Creativity During Threat to Organizational Survival: The Influence of Employee Creativity on Downsizing Survival Selection
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Date
2023-11-30
Authors
Halinski, Michael
Boekhorst, Janet A.
Allen, David
Good, Jessica R.L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sage
Abstract
Although research consistently shows that employee creativity contributes to positive outcomes for teams and organizations, we have limited insight into how employee creativity shapes the outcomes of those employees who demonstrate such creativity, particularly in the context of environmental uncertainties. Drawing from event system theory and threat rigidity theory, we argue that under a threat to organizational survival, incremental creativity has a positive, and radical creativity has a negative, indirect effect on downsizing survival selection via manager evaluations of employee job performance. Study 1 uses a unique three-wave, three-source field study (n1 = 186) to provide support for our hypotheses. Studies 2 and 3 use experimental data (n2 = 410, n3 = 565) involving different scenarios of threats to organizational survival (i.e., organization's innovation failure, competitor's successful innovation) that provide further support for the hypothesized effects of radical creativity on manager evaluations of employee job performance. Post-hoc analyses reveal novel insights into how managers’ creativity preferences can influence their evaluation of the job performance of employees who demonstrate incremental creativity during threatening events.
Description
Halinski, M., Boekhorst, J. A., Allen, D., & Good, J. R. (2023). Creativity during threat to organizational survival: The influence of employee creativity on downsizing survival selection. Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063231216691
Keywords
event system theory, threat rigidity theory, employee downsizing, incremental creativity, radical creativity, job performance, survivors