When does developmental feedback improve employee creativity? The role of the creativity reward system

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

International Journal of Employment Studies

ISSN

1039-6993

Volume

28

Issue

1

DOI

10.3316/informit.310406686816806

First Page

6

Last Page

27

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Abstract

Improving employee creativity is a critical issue for service managers. Research on the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee creativity has been mixed and little research has identified the contextual factors that affect the direction of this relationship. Our study proposes that the effect of supervisor developmental feedback on employee creativity is moderated by service employees' perceptions of whether they perceive the organization's rewarding of creativity to serve an informational or controlling role, and by their creative self-efficacy. In a study of 428 employees in seven stores we found that when employees perceived the organization's rewarding of their creative ideas to be less controlling and their creative self-efficacy was high, the effect of their supervisor's developmental feedback on their creative idea generation was high.

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