How Job Creativity Requirements Affects Employee Creativity: Evidence From a Across-Level Analysis

The present study adopted the Pygmalion perspective and a multilevel theoretical framework to investigate whether creative process engagement mediates the linkage of job creativity requirement with employee creativity. We examined whether team knowledge sharing moderates the aforementioned relationship. We obtained data from 71 supervisors and their 453 employees from three companies in China and applied Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) version 6.08 to test the cross-level hypotheses. The results revealed that creative process engagement mediates the positive linkage of job creativity requirement with employee creativity. In addition, we observed that team knowledge sharing moderates the relationship among job creativity requirement, employee creativity, and creative process engagement. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Team Social Media Usage and Team Creativity: The Role of Team Knowledge Sharing and Team-Member Exchange

Given that work teams have been widely used in a variety of organizations to complete critical tasks and that the use of social media in work teams has been growing, investigating whether and how team social media usage (TSMU) affects team creativity is imperative. However, little research has empirically explored how TSMU affects team creativity. This study divides TSMU into two categories, namely, work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU. Basing on communication visibility theory and social exchange theory, this study constructs a moderating mediation model to understand how TSMU affects team creativity. In this model, team knowledge sharing is used as mediating role and team-member exchange (TMX) is used as moderating role. Two-wave research data collected from 641 employees in 102 work teams in Chinese organizations are used for regression analysis. Results show that (1) Work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU are positively affect team creativity. (2) Team knowledge sharing plays a partly mediating effect on the relationship between work-related TSMU and team creativity and that between relationship-related TSMU and team creativity. (3) TMX not only positively moderates the indirect effect of work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU on team creativity through team knowledge sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Technological Distance and Breakthrough Inventions in Multi-Cluster Teams: How Intra- and Inter-Location Ties Bridge the Gap

Multi-cluster R&D teams have the potential to generate breakthrough inventions because they can tap into the distinct knowledge of the different geographic hot spots in which team members are located. Having access to a variety of knowledge offers these teams great recombinatorial potential. To succeed, however, the geographically dispersed members must share and integrate the different local knowledge pools available to them. We argue that the density of intra-team co-patenting ties shapes intra-team knowledge sharing and integration and hence the extent teams benefit from the knowledge they can access. Whereas greater density of intra-cluster team ties (within a given location) hinders sharing and integration of locally tapped knowledge across locations, greater density of inter-cluster ties (across cluster locations) facilitates it. Our empirical analysis of 834 multi-cluster nanotechnology R&D teams shows that the technological distance (the difference in knowledge) between clusters in which inventors are located has an inverted-U relationship with the likelihood of the team generating a breakthrough. Further, we find that the density of multi-cluster team intra- vs. inter-cluster ties influences the effect of technological distance on the likelihood of breakthrough invention.

A cross-level examination of team-directed empowering leadership and subordinates' innovative performance: an AMO theory perspective

PurposeIn the field of innovation, individual innovative performance also has an important impact on team and organizational innovative performance, thus it is necessary to identify factors that increase individual innovative performance. One key to unlock individual innovative performance is empowering leadership. Drawing on the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) theoretical framework, this study investigates the cross-level influence of team-directed empowering leadership on subordinates' innovative performance and verifies the mediating role of creative self-efficacy (A), intrinsic motivation (M), team knowledge sharing (O) and the moderating effect of feedback seeking climate.Design/methodology/approachWith a sample of 102 teams and 722 employees, this study uses Mplus7.4 software to carry out cross-level model analysis based on MSEM multilevel mediation test methodology.FindingsThe results from cross-level analysis indicate that: (1) Team-directed empowering leadership has a significant positive impact on subordinates' innovative performance. (2) Team-directed empowering leadership enhances subordinates' innovative performance through the improvement of creative self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation and team knowledge sharing. (3) Based on the feedback perspective, feedback seeking climate moderates the relationship between team-directed empowering leadership and creative self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation and team knowledge sharing.Originality/valueThis study introduced the AMO theory into the research on cross-level mediating mechanism between team-directed empowering leadership and subordinates' innovative performance, which broadens the theoretical research perspective. Considering the difference between empowering leadership and laissez-faire leadership and the guiding role of feedback, this study selects feedback seeking climate as a moderator in view of feedback, which riches the contingency factors on the cross-level effect of team-directed empowering leadership.

Intrinsic motivation and knowledge sharing in the mood–creativity relationship

Although studies have identified a link between employee intrinsic motivation (IM) and creativity and between positive mood and creativity, some of this study has been equivocal and little research has included these variables in an integrative model. Drawing from several theories of IM, we address this gap by proposing that IM is a critical intervening mechanism in the relationship between positive mood and creativity, and team knowledge sharing affects the power of this mechanism. Research on field data from 120 R&D team members in 30 teams found that team-level knowledge sharing moderated the relationship between employees' positive mood and IM, and IM mediated the relationship between employees' positive mood and their creativity. Implications of our findings are discussed.

Does cultural intelligence promote cross-cultural teams' knowledge sharing and innovation in the restaurant business?

PurposeThis research investigates knowledge sharing and innovation on the part of culturally diverse teams in the restaurant business and their relation to cultural intelligence (CQ), in which CQ was conceptualized as a team-level variable.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 103 cross-cultural teams in restaurants located in five popular tourist destinations in Thailand and were derived from multiple sources to prevent common method bias. The data that measured team CQ and knowledge sharing were collected from all members in each team and were averaged to create aggregate measures at the team level, while the team supervisor evaluated the teams' innovative performance. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used in the data analysis.FindingsThe results indicated that those teams that demonstrated high CQ tended to exhibit a greater degree of team knowledge sharing and receive higher evaluations of their innovative performance than did those that demonstrated low CQ. The results also showed that team knowledge sharing mediated the relation between team CQ and innovation.Originality/valueCQ's contribution in cross-cultural teams measured at the team level contributes additional knowledge to prior CQ research that rarely has investigated the phenomenon at the aggregate level.