Heard it through the grapevine: Indirect networks and employee creativity.

Abstract

Social networks can be important sources of information and insights that may spark employee creativity. The cross-fertilization of ideas depends not just on access to information and insights through one's direct network-the people one actually interacts with--but at least as much on access to the indirect network one's direct ties connect one to (i.e., people one does not interact with directly, but with whom one's direct ties interact). We propose that the reach efficiency of this indirect network--its nonredundancy in terms of interconnections--is positively related to individual creativity. To help specify the boundaries of this positive influence of the indirect network, we also explore how many steps removed the indirect network still adds to creativity. In addition, we propose that the efficiency (nonredundancy) of one's direct network is important here, because more efficient direct networks give one access to indirect networks with greater reach efficiency. Our hypotheses were supported in a multilevel analysis of multisource survey data from 223 sales representatives nested within 11 divisions of a Chinese pharmaceutical company. This analysis also showed that the creative benefits of reach efficiency were evident for 3 and 4 degrees of separation but were greatest for indirect ties that depend only on one's direct ties.

Creative Mindsets: Scale Validation in the Chinese Setting and Generalization to the Real Workplace

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Innovation at the Service Encounter in Knowledge Intensive Business Services: Antecedents and Boundary Conditions

“…Creative ideas generally stem from blending and consolidating different views and recommendations coming from social interactions (Hirst, Van Knippenberg, Zhou, Quintane, and Zhu, ). When FLEs are exposed to a variety of novel insights coming from communication with customers and their colleagues inside the firm, they challenge their conventionally held view and behaviors (Hirst et al, ). Thus, FLEs are fully equipped for providing innovative solutions that are customer focused and solve the customer problem at the service encounter.…”

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“…The development of new ideas and initiatives begins at the individual level, where individuals' diverse ideas, social relationships, and novel combinations of knowledge generate competing ideas to challenge existing organizational rigidities (Floyd & Wooldridge, 1999). Specifically, employees' social relationships are important sources of diverse perspectives and different bits of knowledge and skills that-when brought together-increase creativity (Hirst, Van Knippenberg, Zhou, & Quintane, 2015;Perry-Smith, 2006). The diversity of knowledge and ideas is a necessary precondition for initial creative insights, but the integration of diverse knowledge and ideas is equally important for obtaining creative performance (Fleming, Mingo, & Chen, 2007;Mors, 2010).…”