Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation

Brucks, Melanie S.; Levav, Jonathan

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04643-y

Cited by 185 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…These experiences were recently confirmed using a large-scale laboratory study and field experiment: the authors found that videoconferencing inhibits the generation of creative ideas when compared to face-to-face brainstorming (Brucks and Levav 2022 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Contradicting this, Chulvi et al ( 2017 ) found no statistical difference in expert ratings of usefulness or unusualness between conceptual designs from in-person and virtual teams. Furthermore, recent research has shown that videoconferencing narrows a participant’s cognitive focus, limiting creative idea generation (Brucks and Levav 2022 ). It has been shown that the environment combined with individual personality types and thinking styles contribute to the degree of novelty of conceptual designs, suggesting that the relationship between virtual work and creativity might not be the same for every product design engineer (Mulet et al 2016 ; García-García et al 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

et al. 2022

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Lower costs and higher employee satisfaction are some of the benefits driving organizations to adopt dispersed and virtual working arrangements. Despite these advantages, product design engineering teams—those who develop physical products—have not widely adopted this working style due to perceived critical dependence on physical facilities and the belief that it is ineffective to communicate technical details virtually. This paper uses the mass shift in working conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to explore the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with product design engineers working virtually to uncover current challenges of, and the beginning of promising strategies for, effective virtual engineering work. We categorize and analyze Tangible Design activities, Intangible Design activities, and Communication and Project Management activities throughout the product design process. Contrary to present opinions, we found that much of a product design engineer's work is realizable in a virtual and distributed setting. However, there are still many challenges, especially when attempting Tangible Design activities—those that require physical products and tools—from home. These challenges, missing from existing virtual product design engineering literature, include but are not limited to individuals’ lessened sense of accountability, fewer de-risking opportunities before product sign-off, and limited supervision of production staff. Product design engineers described novel strategies that emerged organically to mitigate these challenges, such as creating digital alternatives for engineering reviews and sign-offs and leveraging rapid prototyping. Recent advances in technology, an increased commitment to reducing environmental impact, and better work-life balance expectations from new generations of workers will only push society faster towards a distributed working model. Thus, it is critical that we use this opportunity to understand the existing challenges for distributed product design engineers, so that organizations can best prepare and become resilient to future shocks.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is associated with permanent accessibility [ 69 ] and working after hours [ 70 ], which will continue to increase due to the increasing virtuality of collaboration (see [ 47 , 71 ]). Higher virtuality may also decrease creativity [ 72 ] and increase silo thinking [ 50 ]. Furthermore, certain leadership behaviors (e.g., intrusive leadership) heavily interfere with remote work [ 70 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Remote Work Make People Happy? Effects of Flexibilization of Work Location and Working Hours on Happiness at Work and Affective Commitment in the German Banking Sector

Kortsch

Rehwaldt

Schwake

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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(1) Background: In view of the advancing digitalization of the German banking sector, offering remote work can be an opportunity for banks to meet changing customer and employee needs at the same time. It allows flexible consultations at changing locations and, due to the high degree of autonomy, it also increases motivation, meaningfulness, happiness at work, and commitment. (2) Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental design to investigate how remote work affects happiness at work and affective commitment among employees in a German public bank. Therefore, two groups of customer advisors were examined, who work either remotely (N = 32) or stationary (N = 110) at similar tasks. (3) Results: The group comparisons show significantly higher values overall on three of the investigated four happiness dimensions (“meaningfulness”, “self-actualization”, and “community professional”) for employees in the remote group. Commitment also differs, as employees in the remote group show significantly stronger commitment. The quantitative results were confirmed by qualitative interviews. (4) Conclusions: By investigating the positive effects of remote working, this study shows new findings on what is likely to be a growing design form of New Work in the future. The study provides evidence that self-selected work environments and working hours offer an opportunity to make work more conducive to happiness—even in a sector that still undergoes significant shifts.

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“…Indeed, even minor situational conditions can act as a prime. For example, when studying the effects of remote work, Brucks and Levav (2022) found that simply looking at a screen, like a laptop, lowers our creative performance compared to similar interactions with the same person in the room. Another study used a more subtle achievement prime to elicit a creative mindset (Minas and Dennis, 2019): participants used special software for the creativity measures.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Priming creativity: Doing math reduces creativity and happiness whereas playing short online games enhance them

Haase

Hanel

2022

Front. Educ.

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Creative thinking is an indispensable cognitive skill that is becoming increasingly important. In the present research, we tested the impact of games on creativity and emotions in a between-subject online experiment with four conditions (N = 658). (1) participants played a simple puzzle game that allowed many solutions (priming divergent thinking); (2) participants played a short game that required one fitting solution (priming convergent thinking); (3) participants performed mental arithmetic; (4) passive control condition. Results show that divergent and convergent creativity were higher after playing games and lower after mental arithmetic. Positive emotions did not function as a mediator, even though they were also heightened after playing the games and lower after mental arithmetic. However, contrary to previous research, we found no direct effect of emotions, creative self-efficacy, and growth- vs. fixed on creative performance. We discuss practical implications for digital learning and application settings.

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Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation

Cited by 185 publications

References 32 publications

“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

Does Remote Work Make People Happy? Effects of Flexibilization of Work Location and Working Hours on Happiness at Work and Affective Commitment in the German Banking Sector

Priming creativity: Doing math reduces creativity and happiness whereas playing short online games enhance them

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