facilitating individual creativity through human resource practices: an employee’s perspective...

Facilitating individual creativity through human

resource practices: An employee’s perspective

Jian-Min Sun

De-Pin Yang

Department of Psychology

Renmin University of China

Renmin University of China •Founded in 1937

•Mainly liberal arts & Sciences

•Ranked on the top 5 in China (among 1000)

•Leading faculty: Law, Journalism, Economics, Sociology, humanity, Business, etc.

•19,000 full-time and 25,000 part time students

•Exchange or joint programs with Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Michigan State, etc

My Grad. Students and me in 2005

Abstract• This is an explorative study (first phase of a

large project) on the perception of employee about what HRM practices could facilitate individual creativity within organizations.

• Data were collected through in-depth interview, open-ended questionnaire and classified by subject experts

• 7 dimensions with 79 positive and 37 negative practices are identified

• Implications for workplace learning are discussed

Introduction• Organizational innovation has been a hot to

pic in both the academic and practical fields (Ford & Gioia, 1995; Hage, 1999).

• Creativity is the seed of all innovation (Amabile, Conti, et al, 1996)

• Organizational innovation could be improved by enhancing individual creativity.

Introduction (Cont.)• How to motivate employees to implement their

creativity and to further improve organizational innovation is becoming an urgent challenge faced by most organizations (Amabile ， Conti, et al, 1996 ； Anderson ， 1998 ； Mumford ，2002) 。

• The main obstacles for creativity of Chinese knowledge workers are the lack of willingness (motivation), instead of the shortage of creative ability (Sun, 2007).

Introduction (cont.)

• The traditional psychological approach to creativity focuses on the characteristics of creative persons (e.g. Barron, 1955, MacKinnon, 1965; Torrance, 1988; Sternberg, 1995).

Introduction (Cont.)

• Scholars began to emphasize the role of environment that could influence creativity either positively or negatively since 1980s. (Gryskiewicz & Hills,1992; ISaksen ， Murdock ， Firestien & Treffinger ， 1993) 。

Introduction (cont.)• Amabile （ 1988 ） proposed a component

ial model of creativity, which identified three organizational factors that could enhance creativity in workplace:

• Organizational motivation to innovate;

• Resources;

• Management practices

KEYS Emphasizes:

• Psychological context of creativity

• The psychological meaning that respondents attach to events in their organizations.

Introduction (Cont.)• It has been recognized and empirically demonstrated th

at human resource management (HRM), as a management practice, could increase organizational performance (especially the financial outcomes) and the competitive advantage (Bae and Lawler, 2000; Becker ， 1996 ；Delery & Doty ， 1996 ； Dyer and Reeves, 1995; Huselid ， 1995 ； Hutchinson et al, 2003 ； Liu & Liu, 2007; Su & Zeng, 2007; Yang & Zhang, 2002; Youndt ， 1996 ）

• Less research has been done on the relationship between HRM and organizational innovation as well as individual creativity (Helen, Michael, et al, 2006; Sun & Zhang, 2007 ）。

Reward and Creativity• The emphasis and reward of the organizatio

n to creative behavior and performance will increase creativity to a great deal (Amabile, et al.,1996; Chandler, 1993; Eisenberger, et al, 1998 ， 1999 ， 2003) 。

• Others argue that too much emphasis on short-term performance would undermine creative behavior (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Egan, 2005)

Performance Appraisal and Creativity

• Most scholars believe that employees’ level of creativity would be decreased when they could expect that their job performance would be strictly evaluated (Amabile & Goldfarb & Brackfield,1990 ； Shalley & Oldham, 1995 ； Zhou & Oldham, 2001 ）。

• While others (Harackiewicz & Elliot,1993 ； Jussim, Ley, et al, 1992 ） verified that systematic performance appraisal would motivate and increase the level of creativity.

Job Characteristics and Creativity

• Most studies demonstrated that job enrichment, challenging and complexity, and proper autonomy will enhance individual creativity and innovation (Amabile, 1997 ； Ford & Kleiner,1987; Hackman & Oldham, 1980 ； Oldham & Cummings, 1996 ； Tierney & Farmer, 2004) 。

HR Practices Enhance Creativity• Reward creative ideas/outcomes;• Extensive training, innovation-based

oriented training, and role modeling;• Challenging tasks and proper job

pressure;• Job enrichment and job rotation;• Combination of individual and team

work;• Challenging goals;• Positive performance feedback;

HR Practices Enhance Creativity

• Exploratory learning;

• Empowerment;

• Multiple recognition;

• Participation of decision making;

• Diversified team work;

• Support from the boss

• Multiple career advancement

Different Conclusions

• Performance appraisal

• Team work

• Reward methods

•

Research Questions• What types of HRM practices in the eyes

of employees could enhance the individual creativity and in return improve the organizational innovation in Chinese organizations?

• To comprehensively tap perceptions (psychological context) of employees about all HRM practices that might serve as creativity influences.

Theoretical Framework

• According to contextual theories of organizational creativity, it is the psychological meaning of environmental events that largely influences creative behavior (e.g. Amabile, 1988; Cummings, 1965; Woodman, Sawyer, et al, 1993).

Methods• In-depth interview with 35 professional

employees in R&D, sales, and quality control functions in 12 firms, including software, insurance, manufacturing, bank, and retail.

• Each interview last for one hour to two and half hours.

• 128 employees were surveyed with an open-ended questionnaire including the same questions.

Questions Asked• What management practices or measures in

your company do you think are good for motivating creativity and innovation of employees? Explain in detail.

• What practices or measures would hinder the implementation of creativity?

• Why do you think those practices are in favor of enhancing (hindering) creativity? Give us some illustrations or examples.

Research Methods• Three Ph.D candidates in management were em

ployed to pick up the meaningful practices and designed the coding.

• Practices with same meaning or closely related with each other were combined and those had no relation with HRM were deleted.

• Agreement were calculated with Kendal coefficient among three raters after three round individual work.

• Frequencies of each practice from both the protocol of interviews and questionnaires were also recorded.

Findings• 1022 practices were obtained totally,

among them, 715 from interviews and 307 from questionnaires.

• 730 practices with positive influence and 292 with negative influence.

• Averagely, each respondents provided 12 practices.

• Finally, 116 practices were obtained (79 positive and 37 negative)

Dimensions of the Practices• Compensation system

• Career advancement

• Training and development

• Performance appraisal

• Job characteristics and conditions;

• Corporate culture (Harmonious relationship among colleagues; innovation climate; rules and procedures; voice of employees)

Typical Pay Practices

• Pay level is competitive in the local area and in the industry;

• Reward systems for creative suggestions;

• High rate of commission for selling new products or service.

Career Advancement Opportunities

• Expected career advancement

• Link between promotion and creative products

• More opportunities of promotion for creative employees.

Training and Development

• Providing training programs for creative thinking and ability;

• Experience sharing from higher performers within the organization

• Cooperation with research institutions or universities

Job Characteristics

• Have time to relax myself and to think over my job;

• Interesting job;

• I can determine the way to finish my job, no intervention from my boss;

• Give me more opportunity to learn new things

Performance Appraisal

• Put more weights on the selling of new products for salespeople

• Do not pay too much attention to the short-term goals or financial outcomes in the performance appraisal for technical employees;

• Do not put creativity as a measure of performance, otherwise it would become a burden.

Work Conditions

• Send employees to professional meetings, subscribe journals in order to help professionals to learn the frontier development;

• Sufficient facilities, equipment, and materials;

• Clean, quiet, comfortable work environment

Corporate Culture• Harmonious relationship

• Social activities of colleagues off-the-work;

• Private (personal) relationships beyond work relationships

• Caring employees’ personal life and help to solve the life problems

• My supervisor serves as a good work model

Creative Climate• Emphasize the importance of creativity i

n cases

• Allowing mistakes and failure on the job;

• Listen to suggestions from employees and put the them into practice

Binding of rules • Complicated and strict process and procedures• Too formal (unpractical) procedures resulted in the

delay of job;• Leaders concern too much about stability, afraid of

making mistakes, require employees to follow the rules;

• Too many latent rules in the daily interaction; • Spend too much time to deal with interpersonal

issues• Too much team work

Opportunities for Voice• Leaders pay no attention to the ideas of

employees, no demand for innovation;

• Quickly reject the suggestions or ideas of employees;

• Leaders are a law onto oneself, no room for employees to contribute their ideas.

• Free and open communication

Frequencies of the Practices Mentioned

Dimensions

Positive practices Negative Practices

# (%) Frequency (%)

# (%) F (%)

Pay system 12（ 15.2%）

144（ 19.8%）

2 （ 5.4%） 21（ 13.3%）

Career Advancement 3 （ 3.8% ）

72 （ 9.9% ）

2 （ 5.4%） 14（ 5.0% ）

T & D 5 （ 6.3% ）

96 （ 13.2%）

1 （ 2.7%） 25（ 9.0% ）

Work Condition 11（ 14.0%）

49 （ 6.8% ）

3 （ 8.1%） 13（ 4.7% ）

Performance Appraisal 5 （ 6.3% ）

32 （ 4.4% ）

3 （ 8.1%） 18（ 6.5% ）

Job characteristics 15（ 19.0%）

104（ 14.3%）

10（ 27% ） 47（ 16.9%）

Team work 3 （ 3.8% ）

45 （ 6.2% ）

1 （ 2.7%） 12（ 4.3% ）

Corporate Culture

harmony 12（ 15.2%）

86 （ 11.8%）

Creative Climate

13（ 16.5%）

81 （ 11.1%）

Rules/procedures

8 （ 21.7%）

73（ 26.3%）

Voice 7 （ 18.9%）

55（ 19.8%）

Total 79（ 100%）

728（ 100%）

37（ 100%）

278（ 100%）

Implications for Workplace Learning• Leadership modeling

• Leadership support for learning and creativity

• Role modeling from colleagues

• Sharing of experiences and knowledge

• Learning opportunities within and outside of the organization

• Sufficient resources for completing tasks

• Harmonious work and personal relationships

• Simple rules and procedures

谢谢大家！Contact:

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