Voice, creativity, and big five personality traits: A meta-analysis

The association between liking, learning and creativity in music

Aesthetic preference is intricately linked to learning and creativity. Previous studies have largely examined the perception of novelty in terms of pleasantness and the generation of novelty via creativity separately. The current study examines the connection between perception and generation of novelty in music; specifically, we investigated how pleasantness judgements and brain responses to musical notes of varying probability (estimated by a computational model of auditory expectation) are linked to learning and creativity. To facilitate learning de novo, 40 non-musicians were trained on an unfamiliar artificial music grammar. After learning, participants evaluated the pleasantness of the final notes of melodies, which varied in probability, while their EEG was recorded. They also composed their own musical pieces using the learned grammar which were subsequently assessed by experts. As expected, there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between liking and probability: participants were more likely to rate the notes with intermediate probabilities as pleasant. Further, intermediate probability notes elicited larger N100 and P200 at posterior and frontal sites, respectively, associated with prediction error processing. Crucially, individuals who produced less creative compositions preferred higher probability notes, whereas individuals who composed more creative pieces preferred notes with intermediate probability. Finally, evoked brain responses to note probability were relatively independent of learning and creativity, suggesting that these higher-level processes are not mediated by brain responses related to performance monitoring. Overall, our findings shed light on the relationship between perception and generation of novelty, offering new insights into aesthetic preference and its neural correlates.

Psychosocial safety climate as a predictor of work engagement, creativity, innovation, and work performance: A case study of software engineers

Introduction

Creativity is vital for competitive advantage within technological environments facing the fourth industrial revolution. However, existing research on creativity has rarely addressed how a climate beneficial for worker psychological health, a psychosocial safety climate (PSC), could additionally stimulate the growth of workplace creativity, innovation, and performance in digital environments.

Method

To examine how individually perceived PSC influences subsequent work engagement promoting higher levels of computer-based radical and incremental creativity, innovation, and work performance, employees in a software engineering firm (N = 29, 86 observations) completed a weekly questionnaire for 4 consecutive weeks.

Results

At the between-person level PSC was positively related to average future weekly individual fluctuations of creativity (radical and incremental), work engagement, and job performance. Additionally weekly work engagement was related to future creativity (radical and incremental). Work engagement also mediated the between-person relationship between PSC and future creativity (both radical and incremental). PSC did not predict innovation.

Discussion

This study contributes to the theory on PSC, creativity, and work performance by elucidating the individual perceived PSC-creativity relationship and suggesting PSC systems as meaningful antecedents to digital work performance.

Effects of Openness on Incremental Versus Radical Creativity and the Moderating Role of Leader Behaviors

Abstract: Although openness to experience has been consistently related to employee creativity, we know less about how this relationship manifests when one makes a distinction between incremental creativity (i.e., minor modifications of existing practices) and radical creativity (i.e., major departures from existing practices). Our present work is driven by two expectations. First, we expect that openness more strongly relates to radical than incremental creativity. Second, we expect that the link between openness and incremental creativity becomes stronger when leaders display closing behaviors (i.e., they control adherence to rules) or they refrain from opening behaviors (i.e., they do not emphasize the importance of free experimentation). To test our propositions, we conducted four studies: one survey study with self-ratings of openness and creativity, one survey study with both self-ratings and other ratings of openness and creativity, one semi-experimental survey study, and one weekly diary survey study. Our studies largely provide support to the idea that openness has stronger links with radical than incremental creativity. Furthermore, our weekly study revealed that the link between openness and incremental creativity is stronger when closing leader behaviors are high and, at the same, opening leader behaviors are low. We discuss our findings and suggest how managerial practice can guide open employees to improve their potential for incremental creativity.

Get creative to get ahead? How personality contributes to creative performance and perceptions by supervisors at work

What are creative employees like, aside from being high on Openness to Experience? Based on a sample of 170 full-time working professionals in the consulting industry, the present study investigated the Big Five personality predictors of both supervisory perceptions and performance ratings of creative individuals at work. Results suggested that those with higher Openness and Extraversion but lower Agreeableness, were more likely to be perceived as creative people by their supervisors. In terms of their actual creative performance on the job, employees with higher Openness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness, received better supervisory ratings. In highlighting the impact of other Big Five traits in addition to Openness, we interpreted the findings in terms of motives to get ahead or get along and further discussed the implications of the study results for personality and creativity research in the workplace.

The Double-Sided Effect of Empowering Leadership on Constructive Voice Behavior: Focusing on the Mediating Effects of Task Significance and Task Overload

Focusing on job characteristics, this study examined the double-sided effect of empowering leadership on constructive voice behavior. We obtained and analyzed a total of 294 questionnaire responses from pairs of subordinates and supervisors in various industries in Korea. The results supported our hypotheses that task significance and task overload partially mediate the relationship between empowering leadership and constructive voice behavior. Specifically, we found that empowering leadership can promote constructive voice behavior by inducing a recognition of task significance and can suppress constructive voice behavior by causing task overload. These results confirm that empowering leadership indirectly influences constructive voice behavior through job characteristics. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications and highlight directions for future research.

Reciprocal exchange orientation to organization, challenge stressor and construal level: Three-way interaction effects on voice behavior

This study extends our understanding of voice behavior by considering a more complete set of reciprocity antecedents. We add employees-organization reciprocal exchange orientation (EO REO) into the antecedent of voice behavior and clarify the boundary condition by examining the joint moderating role of challenge stressors and construal level. The presence of challenge stressors represents a positive work environment, thus employees with a strong EO REO are likely to reciprocate with voice. However, such stressors also lead employees to focus on how to deal with the current challenges, which only aligns with employees who have a low construal level mindset and prefer to think about the details of the job at hand. Hence, we hypothesized that the positive relationship between EO REO and voice behavior in the face of challenge stressors was more likely to exist for employees whose construal level is low rather than high. We collected data from 237 employee-supervisor matched dyads in study 1 and 225 employee-supervisor matched dyads in study 2. These two studies offered support for the three-way interaction hypothesis. Our studies further voice by extending the antecedent and delineating the boundary condition of challenge stressors and construal level.

Knowledge Hiding and Hider's Innovative Behavior in Chinese Organizations: The Mediating Role of Silence Behavior and the Moderating Role of Zhongyong Thinking

Drawing from the theory of territorial behavior, this article predicts the explanatory role of silence behavior in the relationship between knowledge hiding and hider's innovative behavior in Chinese organizations, and the potential of Zhongyong thinking in mitigating the detrimental effect of knowledge hiding. Results derived from a time-lagged and multi-source survey support our hypotheses. Specifically, knowledge hiding is negatively associated with the innovative behavior of the hider. Silence behavior mediates the relationship between knowledge hiding and innovative behavior. Meanwhile, Zhongyong thinking moderates the positive relationship between knowledge hiding and silence behavior, as well as the indirect relationship between knowledge hiding and innovative behavior through silence behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed based on these findings.

Effects of Coworkers' Helping Behavior on Employees' Knowledge Sharing and Creativity: The Moderating Role of Interactional Justice

Although it is important to examine how creative performance can be achieved by facilitating knowledge sharing activities among its members, few studies have examined these relationships. Therefore, this study analyzed the effects of coworkers’ helping behavior on knowledge sharing and creativity. It also attempted to demonstrate the moderating role of interactional justice as a situational variable that positively affects coworkers’ helping behavior. Using data from 200 full-time supervisor–subordinate dyads in a large public institution located in South Korea, we performed multiple regression analysis and the bootstrapping method to test our hypotheses. The results of this study presented that coworkers’ helping behavior encouraged individuals to share knowledge and increase their creative performance. Moreover, this study demonstrated that the positive effect of coworkers’ helping behavior on employees’ creativity through their knowledge sharing was stronger when interactional justice was high rather than low. Therefore, this research contributes to finding the critical factors that enable a company to gain a competitive advantage by providing the impact of coworkers’ helping behavior and supervisors’ interactional justice on knowledge sharing and creativity among employees.

Speaking up at work: personality’s influence on employee voice behavior

Purpose

To boost efficiency and productivity, organizations are increasingly depending upon employees to speak up about workplace concerns and disagreements. This change-oriented bottom-up communication, termed employee voice behavior, brings attention to workplace issues that could otherwise go undetected by management. This study examined the relationships between personality characteristics, job attitudes, and employee voice behavior, and investigated the moderating role of extraversion on the relationships between job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and turnover intentions) and voice.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional study design was used, with data collected through an online survey from a sample of 284 individuals working in the US. Hypotheses were tested using correlation, regression and moderation analyzes.

Findings

Job satisfaction and turnover intentions were found to be positively and negatively-related, respectively, to employee voice behavior. Extraversion was found to be predictive of employee voice behavior and moderate the relationships between job attitudes and voice behavior. Interestingly, results suggest that the job attitudes of individuals high in extraversion do not influence their likelihood of speaking up. Rather, voice behaviors of only those with low or moderate levels of extraversion are impacted by their job attitudes.

Originality/value

This study builds upon prior research identifying the importance of extraversion in predicting voice behavior by testing its incremental validity and relative weight, compared to the other Big Five personality characteristics. Furthermore, this research contributes to the theoretical understanding of instances in which employee voice behavior occurs by examining the moderating effect of extraversion on the relationship between job attitudes and employee voice behavior.

Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Employee Voice: A Conservation of Resources Perspective

Drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we constructed a model about how two of Big-Five personality traits, extraversion and neuroticism, respectively, influence employee voice through an indirect effect of emotional exhaustion. We distributed two wave surveys to 435 employees and their supervisors in a Chinese state-owned bank. Our analyses indicated that extraversion had a positive indirect effect on employee voice via emotional exhaustion, whereas neuroticism had a negative indirect effect on employee voice via emotional exhaustion. We concluded by discussing our theoretical implications with research on employee voice and COR. Additionally, we discussed our practical implications for managerial practices and for the general public.

Fostering Creativity in Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Teams: The VICTORY Model

Teams are pervasive in the history of mankind. Particularly in our fast-growing modern society, teams composed of members from different cultures and disciplines are quite often used at the workplace. Though widely used, the effectiveness of teams is inconsistent. Meta-analyses report a double-edged effect of diversity on creativity and innovation, suggesting that diversity needs to be tactfully managed if we want to leverage the creative potential of teams. The current paper strives to meet this challenge and makes recommendations on how to foster creativity in intercultural and interdisciplinary teams. It discusses the concepts of teams vs. groups and creativity vs. innovation. Drawing upon sociocultural theories of creativity and innovation, particularly literature reviews and meta-analyses, this paper attempts to identify non-cognitive, cognitive and environmental enablers of team creativity. The VICTORY model offers a summary of these enablers, as it focuses on team (T) and synthesizes both non-cognitive (Vision, Openness, Risk-taking, Yes-I-Can Mindset) and cognitive (Ideation, Combination) antecedents of team creativity. Yet it is only through the combination and integration of environmental factors (including communication, collaboration, and support, among others) that the effect of these antecedents can be fully realized.