Creativity in the Australian high-tech industry: the joint effects of individual differences and social networking

Creativity is increasingly important in contemporary organisations, particularly those in the high-tech IT industry, where organisational success is highly dependent on constant improvement. Consequently, research on creativity has been burgeoning in recent times. Examination of the creativity literature reveals several inconsistencies and ambiguities. In particular, an emphasis on the prototypical creative individual has limited the focus of much of the existing research to considerations of personality traits as the main predictors of individual creativity. As a result unitary and monolithic considerations of creativity dominate the literature with multifaceted considerations of creativity neglected. The present research was designed to address this limitation by assessing more malleable and practical individual difference variables in relation to creativity. Specifically, the relationships between proactivity and creativity as well as creative self-efficacy (CSE) and creativity were examined.

In recognition of the multifaceted nature of creativity, the networking perspective was also incorporated into this study. In particular, both networking parameters (i.e. weak and outside ties) and roles (i.e. brokerage and centrality) were considered concurrently in relation to individual creativity. Furthermore, the potential for these networking variables to mediate the relationship between individual differences (i.e. proactivity and CSE) and individual creativity was also explored. In doing so this research integrated both the individual difference and networking perspectives on creativity.

Data from 180 employees were matched with data from 51 corresponding supervisors working in a large Australian IT organisation. Use of this context enabled improved generalisability of the study findings as previous research has largely been limited to Asian and/or student samples. The proposed mediation effects were examined using the joint test in structural equation modelling. Overall, mixed support was found for the ten hypotheses.

These mixed findings, including several unexpected negative relationships, provided particularly novel insights into the relationships of interest, in turn answering important questions about individual creativity. In particular, the findings demonstrated that the relationship between proactivity and creativity was fully mediated by brokerage and centrality and that the relationship between CSE and creativity was partially mediated by brokerage and centrality. Networking parameters (i.e. weak and outside ties) were however not significant mediators in the relationship between individual differences and creativity. Interestingly, brokerage was the most significant antecedent to individual creativity. Overall, the findings corroborate, extend and challenge existing findings on individual creativity and as such have significant theoretical and methodological implications for future creativity research.

在当代组织中，创造力的重要性与日俱增，尤其是在高科技IT行业——这类组织的成功高度依赖持续的迭代改进。因此，近年来创造力相关研究呈蓬勃发展之势。但对创造力研究文献的梳理发现，其中存在诸多不一致与模糊之处。具体而言，现有多数研究因过度聚焦典型创造性个体，将研究焦点局限于将人格特质作为个体创造力的核心预测变量。由此，研究文献中对创造力的单一化、同质化解读占据主导，而对创造力的多维度考量却被忽视。
本研究旨在弥补这一局限，通过评估与创造力相关的、更具可塑性与实践意义的个体差异变量展开研究，具体考察了前瞻性特质（proactivity）与创造力的关系，以及创造性自我效能感（creative self-efficacy, CSE）与创造力的关系。
鉴于创造力具有多维度属性，本研究同时纳入了社会网络视角。具体而言，本研究同时考察了与个体创造力相关的网络参数（即弱联结与外部联结）以及网络角色（即结构洞经纪人与网络中心性）。此外，本研究还探究了上述网络变量在个体差异变量（即前瞻性特质与CSE）与个体创造力之间的中介作用潜力。借此，本研究同时整合了创造力研究的个体差异视角与社会网络视角。
本研究收集了澳大利亚一家大型IT企业中180名员工及其对应的51名直属主管的匹配数据。由于既往创造力研究多局限于亚洲样本或学生样本，该研究场景的选取提升了研究结果的外部推广性。本研究采用结构方程建模（structural equation modelling）中的联合检验法对所提出的中介效应进行了检验。总体而言，本研究的10项假设仅得到了混合性支持。
这些混合性结果（包括若干意料之外的负向关联）为所关注的变量关系提供了极具创新性的洞见，进而解答了个体创造力研究中的若干关键问题。具体而言，研究结果显示，前瞻性特质与创造力之间的关系完全由结构洞经纪人角色与网络中心性中介，而CSE与创造力之间的关系则由结构洞经纪人角色与网络中心性部分中介。不过，网络参数（即弱联结与外部联结）并未在个体差异变量与创造力之间起到显著的中介作用。值得注意的是，结构洞经纪人角色是个体创造力最显著的前因变量。总体而言，本研究结果既验证、拓展了既往个体创造力领域的研究发现，也对其提出了挑战，因此对未来创造力研究具有重要的理论与方法论启示。