Work behavior Flashcards
Define creativity.
The production of new and useful ideas concerning products, processes, and procedures (Zhou, 1998; Zhou and Shalley, 2011).
Componential theory of creativity
(Amabile, 1996)
For people to exhibit high levels of creativity, three components must be present:
(1) they should possess domain-relevant knowledge and skills,
(2) they need to have creativity-relevant skills and strategies and
(3) they need to be intrinsically motivated to work on the task.
Define intrinsic motivation within the context of the componential theory of creativity, and describe why it’s important for creativity
Intrinsic motivation is the type of motivation that results from individuals’ interest and involvement in, curiosity about, satisfaction with, or positive challenge from the task itself.” (Amabile, 1996)
It’s essential in creativity bc no matter how much domain knowledge one has or how skillful one is in thinking outside the box, if one isn’t internally motivated by the task itself, one will not engage and persist in creative activities. (Zhou and Shalley, 2011)
Describe cognitive evaluation theory and its role in creativity
This is a motivation theory by
Deci & Ryan (1985) that holds that whether a contextual factor boosts or diminishes intrinsic motivation depends on whether the factor is informational or controlling. If informational, people likely to feel competent and self-determining, so intrinsic motivation likely high. If controlling, likely to feel pressured or constrained by external forces rather than being self-determining, so IM likely to be low.
Thus, a motivational approach to creativity posits that contextual factors that are informational will enhance creativity, and contextual factors that are controlling with restrict creativity. (Zhou and Shalley, 2011)
What are some findings regarding leadership and creativity?
As noted by Zhou and Shalley (2011), employee creativity is associated with transformational leadership and informational feedback behaviors (in contrast to controlling), both of which can be attributed to enhanced intrinsic motivation.
What are some findings regarding creativity and goal setting?
As noted by Zhou and Shalley (2011), the type of goals set for employees impacts their creativity; when creativity goals are set, creativity is enhanced, but when productivity goals are set, creativity is lower.
What are some findings regarding creativity and feedback?
As noted by Zhou and Shalley (2011), the type of feedback employees receive impacts their creativity, with controlling feedback restricting creativity and informational feedback enhancing it.
What are some findings regarding creativity and job complexity?
As noted by Zhou and Shalley (2011), employees with more complex jobs are likely to have higher levels of intrinsic motivation, which in turn leads to higher levels of creativity.
What is creative cognition?
Creative cognition: certain creativity-relevant skills and processes that facilitate creativity and help produce creative thoughts. It involves generating a number of ideas about problems or work processes, combining ideas, evaluating them as to their merit, and selecting those that need further consideration and expansion (Zhou and Shalley, 2011)
How does creativity work from a cognitive perspective?
Individuals use and apply certain cognitive processes, their memory systems, and cognitive structures. They search within and across knowledge for diverse info that can be used to creatively explore problems, link ideas from multiple sources, and seek out new ways of working on a task. (Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
What are the stages of the creative thought process and what role does creative cognition play?
Wallas’ (1926) classic model described four stages of creative thinking: preparation (e.g., examination of the problem and goals for addressing it), incubation (e.g.,
suspending conscious work on the problem but unconsciously working on it), illumination (e.g., the solution presents itself—the aha effect), and verification (e.g., use of logic and knowledge to evaluate the idea and refine it so that it is an appropriate solution). It’s an iterative process, and creative cognition moves an idea through the stages. (Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
How does the incubation stage work and what promotes this stage?
Incubation is unconsciously working on an idea, but not consciously. Breaks provide a time for non-taxing or mindless work in which the individual can think of non–task-related
thoughts. Creativity could be enhanced by designing workdays to include
hours of cognitively challenging, high-pressure work interspersed with some hours of mindless work. (Zhou and Shalley, 2011)
What are some personal characteristics affect creative cognition?
- focus on gains rather than losses
- have a more innovative cognitive style
- have higher creative self-efficacy
- have a creative role identity
- feel others see their creative identity,
- Have higher identity integration (two social IDs are compatible, like women programmers with women audiences)
- have a creative personality (broad approach, persistent about developing new ideas, recognize divergent opinions) are more creative (Zhou and Shalley, 2011).
What are some other factors (coworkers/supervisors) that impact creativity?
-Perceived expectations of leaders, customers, and family were associated with self-expectations for creativity, which were associated with creative involvement at work.
-perceptions that the org values creative work predicted creativity.
-social networks: weak ties facilitated the generation of alternatives and encourage
autonomous thinking.
- presence of creative role models (Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
What role does planning to be creative play in actual creativity
theory of planned action - having an intention to be creative was positively related to actual creativity. This is less due to conscious decision making than unconscious thought processes, bc unconscious thought is divergent which leads to novel ideas. (Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
What are some findings regarding teams and creativity?
The highest creativity was found in teams that had creative members and high levels of creativity-relevant processes. Also, a moderate frequency of communication was best for creativity among teams, because members could share ideas but not be overloaded by the amount of information. (Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
What is brainstorming and what does the research say about group brainstorming’s value in terms of creativity?
Brainstorming involves the
generation of novel ideas related to a particular problem, and creativity is expected to arise due to the statistical advantage of having a lot of ideas that can be culled and combined to form new ones.
Advantages:
-people exposed to diverse and new knowledge
-ideas can stimulate others to think of related ideas
(Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
What impact does team diversity have on creativity?
The research indicates this is a complex relationship. One would think that diverse backgrounds would lead to more creativity, but some research have not found main effects. Instead, it depends on context. It seems that only when faultlines are activated is creativity negatively impacted by diversity (due to emotional conflict).
(Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
What is the relationship between affect and creativity?
Positive affect leads to creativity directly and through cognitive flexibility. However, negative affect, as well as the interaction between the two, can lead to creativity in certain conditions. Negative affect can lead to creativity under certain conditions, such as when used as an expression of voice (giving feedback), and when negative moods are activating and increase persistence. Creativity is useful in stressful times when new solutions are needed.
Positive and negative affect can interact to improve creativity above the impact of each separately, especially in supportive contexts (Zhou and Shalley, 2011). Negative moods alert employees to problems, cause the employees to focus on the current situation
rather than their preexisting assumptions, and motivate them to exert high levels of effort to make improvements. Positive moods allow employees to be playful with ideas and willing to take risks and explore novel ways of doing things and facilitate divergent thinking. (Zhou & Shalley, 2011)
What is the difference between task and contextual performance?
Borman and Motowidlo, 1997
Task performance is the effectiveness with which employees perform activities that contribute to the org’s products or services directly (e.g., selling widgets, etc).
Contextual performance activities are ones that contribute to the organizational, social, and psychological context in which work is performed, and which serves as a catalyst for the work (e.g., volunteering or helping others)
What is the definition of OCB?
Organizational citizenship behavior is extra-role discretionary behavior intended to help others in the organization or to demonstrate conscientiousness in support of the organization (Borman and Motowidlo, 1997; originally Smith et al, 1983). Key is EXTRA-ROLE.
Also called contextual performance.
What is prosocial organizational behavior and what are two differences between org citizenship behavior and prosocial behavior?
Prosocial behavior is behavior performed with the intention of promoting welfare of individuals or groups to whom the behavior is directed. (Borman and Motowidlo, 1997)
(1) Prosocial behaviors can either be role-prescribed or extra-role, but OCBs are inherently extra-role. (2) Prosocial behaviors can be negative for the organization and good for individuals, but OCBs cannot (e.g., helping a coworker with a project but missing a deadline).
(Borman and Motowidlo, 1997)
What are the five categories of contextual (citizenship) performance?
1) Persisting with enthusiasm and extra effort to complete own task activities
2) Volunteering for extra-role activities
3) Helping and cooperating with others
4) Following org rules and procedures
5) Endorsing, supporting and defending org objectives
(Borman and Motowidlo, 1997)
What are three ways in which contextual (citizenship) performance is different from task performance?
1) Task activities vary a lot across jobs, whereas contextual activities do not.
2) Task activities more likely than contextual to be role-prescribed
3) KSAOs more likely predict task performance but personality likely predicts citizenship/contextual
(Borman and Motowidlo, 1997)
What is an implication for selection with regards to contextual (citizenship) performance?
When contextual performances dimensions are included as criteria, personality predictors are more likely to be successful correlates.
This also means can rely less on cognitive ability as a predictor/test (reducing adverse impact).
In practice, if you measure contextual components of overall performance separately, you’ll be able to use personality predictors more (the validities will be higher).
(Borman and Motowidlo, 1997)
What was Project A?
Project A was a large-scale test validation research effort conducted in the U.S. Army (Campbell, 1990).
Why is contextual (citizenship) performance important in the modern workplace?
Several reasons:
- Downsizing continues to make adaptability and willingness to put in extra effort more of a necessity
- customer service is increasingly emphasized
- team based orgs become more popular (more interdependence)
- globalization increases need for employees to exert more effort to complete
To what degree do supervisors weigh contextual (citizenship) performance in overall ratings?
As Borman and Motowidlo (1997) point out, supervisors consider contextual performance on the part of subordinates when making overall performance ratings and that they weight it approximately as highly as task performance in making overall judgements. (Podsakoff et al, 2000)
How does contextual (citizenship) performance help explain research findings about personality’s relationship to performance?
Borman and Motowidlo (1997) established that although past research found personality to be predictive of overall performance, this was due to personality actually predicting contextual performance dimensions of those ratings. This may help explain past research findings that conscientiousness, for example, predicted overall performance – it is likely that trait predicts contextual performance.
What is the relationship between OCBs and CWBs?
A meta-analysis by Dalal (2005) found that OCBs and CWBs have a modest negative relationship and that they are relatively distinct and not opposite poles of the same latent factor.
What are antecedents of OCBs and CWBs?
job satisfaction, perceptions of organizational justice, positive affectivity, negative affectivity, conscientiousness and organizational commitment. Dalal (2005) found they more strongly predict CWBs than OCBs, however.