Every Sherlock needs a Dr. Watson: A theory of creativity catalysts in organizations

Abstract

Summary This research investigates when certain coworkers can serve as “catalysts” to enhance the creative performance of others. We draw on social capital theory and the ability‐motivation framework to focus on the characteristics of potential catalysts and the facets of relationships between catalysts and creators. We hypothesized and found that the strength of the relationship between a catalyst and a creator has a positive association with the intensity of the catalyst's contribution to the creator's creative performance. In addition, this contribution is stronger if the catalyst himself/herself is creative, and counter to our hypothesis if the catalyst has access to the same contacts as the creator (i.e., high dyadic redundancy). Later, we turned our attention from the intensity of contribution between a catalyst and a creator to the total catalytic contribution that a creator receives from all their catalysts. We predicted and found an inverted U‐shaped relationship, such that although it is beneficial to receive help from catalysts up to a certain point, receiving excessive levels of catalytic contributions can be detrimental to employees' creative performance. We discuss the implications of our findings and explore how our results indicate a meaningful although mostly overlooked phenomenon in creativity research.

When perceiving a coworker as creative affects social networks over time: A network theory of social capital perspective

“…Having relationships with creative coworkers can enhance one's own creativity when the coworkers provide novel information, advice, and feedback (De Stobbeleir et al, 2011; Koseoglu et al, 2022; Perry‐Smith, 2006). Coworkers who are perceived to be creative can act as a continual source of new resources as they keep coming up with new ideas and perspectives, and this will distinguish them from other coworkers who provide more standard and repetitive information and feedback over time (Zhou, 2003).…”

Conflict side of creativity: Role of supervisory support and team affective tone in facilitating creative idea validation

“…In a workgroup environment, employees interact with their co-workers the way they interact with their supervisors. These interactions include both work and non-work activities/tasks, which can impact their behavior generally and their creative performance particularly as it is the consequence of these behaviors ( 34 , 36 , 37 , 40 ). Literature has identified that not only group characteristics including size, gender profile work, the experience of members, etc.…”

A Multilevel Review of Curvilinear Effects on the Creative Work of Teams

“…Control over one’s job (Du et al, 2020) and job predictability (Caniëls et al, 2021) are shown to have inverted U-shaped relationships with individual creativity that are flattened and even flipped to U-shaped ones when receiving stronger encouragement of creativity from supervisors or support from coworkers. The support for creative thinking one receives from coworkers through dyadic interactions also impacts employee creativity in an inverted U-shaped fashion (Koseoglu et al, 2022). The variety in feedback sources, in contrast, shows a U-shaped relationship that flips to an inverted one as performance dynamism increases and creative time pressure decreases (Sijbom et al, 2018).…”