Abstract
Power has been shown to liberate actors from situational influences that harm creativity because they elicit conformity. However, the workplace creativity literature recognizes that situational factors can also promote creativity. In this paper, we combine these findings and investigate whether this means that low-power actors benefit more from creativity-enhancing situational factors. Specifically, we test how power attenuates the impact of diversity in an actor’s environment on individual inspiration and creativity. Data from two large survey studies and one archival study provide converging evidence for the proposed contingent benefits of diversity for low-power actors’ inspiration and creativity. Together, the results of these studies demonstrate that low power may render individuals more receptive to social influences conducive to creativity, such as diversity, thereby facilitating individuals’ feelings of inspiration and displayed creativity.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 104248 |
Journal | Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes |
Volume | 176 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We gratefully acknowledge the help of Richard J. Swartz and Zhen Zhang with the analysis of the data and of Kristen Nault and Dylan Hauser with literature research and coding. Guoquan Chen’s work related to this project was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant #72172071, 71772099).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors