It’s easy to put value on creativity in the workplace, but fears of being robbed of our ideas can greatly hinder creative minds. However, a new study shows that this very rarely happens. In addition, employers would be wise to establish a climate that is conducive to sharing ideas.
Coworkers rarely steal each other’s ideas, mainly because most of them… aren’t good enough in the first place! That’s the study’s first moral, one that was published in the February-March issue of the Academy of Management Journal.
A good idea will more often be the result of a creative process with the minds of many. Rarely will it be the result of a sudden revelation. To encourage creativity, it is best that employees share their knowledge and ideas with colleagues rather than hide them.
Not doing so is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot, say the study’s authors. “Employees who intentionally conceal information are more likely to be subject to the same behavior from colleagues, which ultimately is bad for them and reduces their creativity,” they state.
More conducive than other environments
For this study, researchers asked employees to note the “concealment of knowledge” factor, according to the number of times a colleague refused to share information with them, and the “work environment” factor, based on collaboration or performance between workers, and therefore the competition (what they call “master”). In the same manner, supervisors were asked to rate their employees’ level of creativity.
In a “high master” climate, the results showed little difference between the scores obtained by creative employees who hid their ideas and those of others. Avoiding the sharing of knowledge therefore does not in any way alter the way in which supervisors assess creativity. Alernatively, in a climate of high performance, the more the worker conceals knowledge, the more he is likely to be perceived as being less creative by his superior.
In conclusion, the study highlights that a controlled climate “protects from the harmful effects of concealing knowledge” and is “a work environment that is conducive to the stimulation of creative behavior.”
On the other hand, “a performance-oriented climate should be avoided because it has negative impacts on creativity. This explains the high risk of failure of the pro- creative initiatives which are based on competition rather than collaboration.”