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

Paraskevas Petrou*, Dimitri van der Linden, Arnold Bakker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
149 Downloads (Pure)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)190-204
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Individual Differences
Volume44
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Hogrefe Publishing.

Research programs

  • ESSB PSY

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Effects of Openness on Incremental Versus Radical Creativity and the Moderating Role of Leader Behaviors'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this