Deep Help in Complex Project Work: Guiding and Path-Clearing Across Difficult Terrain

Abstract

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How employees react to unsolicited and solicited advice in the workplace: Implications for using advice, learning, and performance.

“…Finally, advice is more specific than citizenship behavior, which tends to be broader, encompassing additional behaviors such as compliance, altruism, and sportsmanship (e.g., Organ, 2018;Venkataramani & Dalal, 2007). occurs, helpers assume a degree of involvement in the task (see, for example, Fisher, Pillemer, & Amabile, 2018), whereas when unsolicited advice occurs, the advisor is providing guidance or recommendations as opposed to taking part in the work itself. Thus, the properties of advice are not isomorphic with help and, theoretically, it is crucial to account for specific advice properties to further our understanding how unsolicited and solicited advice affect employee reactions and work outcomes.…”

The Vital Few: Exploring the Role of Expertise in the Process of Team Creativity

“…Two major characteristics of these teams, as indicated by previous studies, are knowledge heterogeneity and task uncertainty. First, as a structure distinct from stable functional department, team intended for creativity is fundamentally aimed at integrating diverse knowledge and skills, facilitating knowledge sharing and idea exchange, generating new ideas, and solving difficult problems out of the reach of single individuals or a group of individuals with homogeneous skills (Fisher et al, 2018; Hinsz, 2015; Li, Li, Guo, Li, & Brad, 2018). Therefore, in a strict sense, members of teams intended for creativity are unlikely to be homogenous on knowledge, perspectives, or information.…”

“…Second, there is always great uncertainty faced by teams intended for creativity in the process of approaching their targets (Fisher et al, 2018). Such uncertainty often derives from the task itself, such as the inherent discrepancies in the objectives, the inconsistencies between the goals and the available means, and the time pressure to complete the task (Hornung, Rousseau, Glaser, Angerer, & Weigl, 2010).…”

“…Team creativity is highlighted in organization and management studies, and knowledge‐based teams are considered the main force (Fisher, Pillemer, & Amabile, 2018). Empirical research on the antecedents of team creativity is prevalent (e.g., Hoever, Zhou, & Knippenberg, 2018; Jia, Shaw, Tsui, & Park, 2014), yet without a coherent understanding of the process through which creativity manifests at the team level.…”