Understanding Organizational Creativity: Relationships among Cross-level Variables and Creativity in Research and Development Organizations

We examined the association of creativity with creative personality, domain expertise, non-controlling supervision, and organizational learning culture, as well as cross-level interactions in R&D organizations. Using HLM, domain expertise and non-controlling supervision were found to be positively associated with creativity. Practical implications and recommendations for further research are provided. Employee creativity has received substantial attention in the literature for the role that it plays, particularly in research and development (R&D) organizations that consider employee creativity as the lifeblood for their survival (McLean, 2011). However, the majority of scholars have investigated this phenomenon primarily at the individual level: “The major focus in creativity research has been on the individual creator and his or her personality, traits, abilities, experiences, and thought processes” (Williams & Yang, 1999, p. 378). It has been only recently that more scholars have turned their focus to the influence of organizational context on employee creativity: “The social environment can influence both the level and frequency of creative behavior” (Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996, p. 1155). Employee creativity should not be understood as an individual behavior that is a part of a person’s characteristics or abilities but as a complex phenomenon that is influenced by organizational contexts, such as supervisor’s leadership style or organizational climate (McLean, 2011). As the current study incorporates multiple variables at different levels of organizations that might influence employee creativity, it contributes to expanding the knowledge base about creativity. Purpose, Research Questions, and Hypotheses The purpose of this study was to examine the associations among four variables (i.e., domain expertise, creative personality, non-controlling supervision style, and organizational learning culture) to understand how creativity is related to each variable, as well as the crosslevel interactions. Research questions were: 1. What are the associations between supervisor rating of employee creativity in R&D organizations and individual-level variables (i.e., personality and expertise) and team-level variables (i.e., supervision style and organizational learning culture)? 2. Do team-level variables moderate the associations between supervisor rating of employee creativity and individual-level variables? The following hypotheses were tested: Hypothesis 1: Creative personality is positively associated with employee creativity. Hypothesis 2: Domain expertise is positively associated with employee creativity. Hypothesis 3a: Non-controlling supervision is positively associated with employee creativity. Hypothesis 3b: The strength of the relationship between creative personality and creativity