Polychronicity and Multitasking: A Diary Study at Work

Polychronicity and multitasking have been described as being indispensible in work today because they enable people to use their time flexibly and effectively. We conducted a diary study among 93 employees during the mornings and evenings of 5 consecutive workdays (n = 418 observations). The study used hierarchical linear modeling with polychronicity and other personal characteristics at the person level, and multitasking behavior along with multitasking opportunities, interruptions, and unplanned work as antecedents, and affective well-being and self-rated performance as outcomes at the day level. We found several relations between antecedents and multitasking, as well as between multitasking and consequences. Polychronicity interacts with these relationships, such that polychronic individuals’ affective well-being and self-rated performance are less affected on days with much multitasking compared to monochronic individuals.     

Turning Daily Time Pressure into a Creative Day: The Interactionist Roles of Employee Neuroticism and Time Pressure Dispersion

The purpose of this study was to explore under which circumstances daily time pressure is positively related to daily creativity. Building on resource allocation and uncertainty theory, it is argued that highly neurotic individuals’ creativity, relative to their emotionally stable counterparts, is more strongly enhanced by daily time pressure. This effect, however, should only emerge in instances of highly consistent daily time pressure over time. To test this model, a diary study was conducted spanning over five subsequent working days. The sample consisted of 250 individuals with 1,156 daily measurement points. As expected, neuroticism and dispersion of time pressure over time jointly moderated the relationship between daily time pressure and daily creativity. The relationship was positive and significant only when individuals ranked high in neuroticism and dispersion of time pressure was low. The results of this study suggest that under certain circumstances, neurotic individuals are able to realise more gains from increased time pressure compared to their emotionally stable counterparts.     

Exploring links between polychronicity and well-being from the perspective of person–job fit: Does it matter if you prefer to do only one thing at a time?

This research examined polychronicity, which refers to an individual’s preference for working on many things simultaneously as opposed to one at a time. It was hypothesized that supplies–values fit on this temporal variable is related to well-being. Specifically, it was predicted that deficient and excess polychronicity supplies are associated with poorer well-being, and that well-being is uniformly high along the continuum of polychronicity fit. It was also hypothesized that fit effects are stronger for individuals who place high importance on how their time is allocated than for individuals who place low importance on that dimension. Participants in Study 1, a laboratory experiment, were students (N = 266); participants in Study 2, conducted in a field setting, were employees of Canadian organizations (N = 746). No fit effects were observed in Study 1. Consistent with the hypotheses, however, fit on the dimension of polychronicity was related to job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and psychological strain in Study 2. The role of value importance as a moderator of the relation between supplies–values fit and well-being was not supported.     

Creativity in Middle Childhood: Influence of Perceived Maternal Sensitivity,Self-esteem,and Shyness

This study aimed to examine the relationship between maternal sensitivity and affect, as perceived by the child, and childhood creativity. Self-esteem and shyness were considered mediating factors. A total of 151 elementary school pupils were tested on verbal and pictorial creativity, self-esteem, and perceived maternal affect and sensitivity. Their teachers assessed each child’s shyness in their relations at school. A Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model of the causal relationships among the study’s variables was tested. Results supported this theoretical model of causality. Maternal sensitivity had a significant, direct, positive effect on self-esteem, and a direct negative effect on shyness. In addition, self-esteem had a direct positive effect on verbal creativity and shyness had a negative direct effect on verbal and pictorial creativity. The indirect effect of maternal sensitivity on verbal creativity was significant via both self-esteem and shyness. The findings were discussed in terms of their implications for child development.     

Problem Clarity as a Moderator between Trait Affect and Self‐Perceived Creativity

Empirical studies on the relationship between affect and creativity often produce conflicting results. This inconsistency has led us to believe that the relationship between affect and creativity may be better understood by looking at potential moderators. Our study looked specifically at trait affect and self‐perceived creativity. Using the Affect Infusion Model (AIM) theory with problem clarity as the potential moderator, we hypothesized that when individuals are faced with problems that lack clarity, trait affect has greater sway over their self‐perceived creativity. Our results provided evidence that problem clarity moderated the relationship between positive trait affect and self‐perceived creativity; the positive relationship between positive trait affect and self‐perceived creativity is stronger when problem clarity is low and weaker when problem clarity is high. No moderating effect was found in the relationship between negative trait affect and self‐perceived creativity.     

情绪创造力对员工创新行为的影响:情绪社会建构理论的视角

基于情绪社会建构理论,运用问卷调查法,通过分析708组配对数据,探讨情绪创造力对员工创新行为的影响机制。结果表明:情绪创造力对员工创新行为有显著的正向影响,创造性角色认同在其中具有部分中介作用;员工情绪创造力与领导激励创造性的交互作用通过员工创造性角色认同为中介,影响员工的创新行为,从而表现出有中介的调节作用。     

The Interactive Effects of Self‐Perceptions and Job Requirements on Creative Problem Solving

Over the years, researchers have focused on ways to facilitate creativity in the workplace by looking at individual factors and organizational factors that affect employee creativity (Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 1993 ). In many cases, the factors that affect creativity are examined independently. In other words, it is uncommon for researchers to look at the interaction among individual and organizational factors. In this study, it is argued that to get a true understanding of how to maximize creativity in the workplace, organizational researchers must look at the interaction between organizational factors and individual factors that affect employee creativity. More specifically, the current study looked at an individual's perceptions about his or her ability to be creative (i.e., individual factor) and perceptions of requirements for creativity in the workplace (i.e., an organizational factor). The results indicated that individuals who have a high belief about their ability to be creative (an individual factor) were most creative when they also perceived requirements for creativity in the workplace (an organizational factor). Furthermore, individuals who had low perceptions of creative ability were still able to perform creatively when they had high perceptions of requirements for creativity. This suggests that, to maximize creativity, organizations should focus on both individual and organizational factors that affect employee creativity.     

Authoritarian–benevolent Leadership and its Effect on Graduate Student Creativity: The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation

Despite numerous studies demonstrating that authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership exert incompatible influence on an individual’s creativity, the combined effects of authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership on an individual’s creativity and the related mechanisms have yet to be explained. This study tests a model that considers the combined effects of authoritarian and benevolent leadership on graduate student creativity in the universities in China, while also examining the mediating role of the intrinsic motivation of graduate students. Multisource data were collected from 297 graduate students in 60 university scientific research teams in China. The results show that when authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership are in congruence, the intrinsic motivation of graduate students and their creativity increase as supervisor authoritarianism and benevolence increases. When authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership are in discrepancy, the intrinsic motivation of graduate students is higher when low supervisor authoritarianism is combined with high benevolence; however, the findings also show that low authoritarian leadership combined with high benevolent leadership would not increase graduate student creativity. The relationship between authoritarian–benevolent leadership and graduate student creativity is partially mediated by intrinsic motivation. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Exploring the Effect of Perceived Teacher Support on Multiple Creativity Tasks: Based on the Expectancy–Value Model of Achievement Motivation

The present study explores the effect of perceived teacher support on three forms of thinking related to creativity. Tests of convergent thinking (by means of the Remote Associates Test), insight thinking (explored through a brain‐teaser test), and divergent thinking (by means of a verbal creativity test) were given to 512 middle school students in China, along with assessments of their perceived teacher support and creative self‐efficacy. The results of this study indicate that perceived teacher support positively predicts convergent thinking and insight thinking, with creative self‐efficacy playing a partial mediating role between perceived teacher support and convergent thinking. However, no significant relationships were found between perceived teacher support and divergent thinking. The findings partly lend support to the expectancy–value model of achievement motivation that teacher’s behavior influences student performance through self‐belief pathway.     

Supervisor–Subordinate Relationship,Differentiation, and Employee Creativity: A Self‐Categorization Perspective

This study seeks to explore the effect of the quality of supervisor–subordinate relationship (i.e., leader–member exchange; LMX) on employee creativity by examining a moderated‐mediation model. The model focuses on the mediating role of perceived insider status and the moderating role of perceived LMX differentiation in influencing the mediation. Using a time‐lagged research design, we collected data from 358 supervisor–subordinate dyads in a large Chinese diversified company. As predicated, we found that (a) perceived insider status mediated the positive relationship between LMX and employee creativity; and (b) perceived LMX differentiation moderated the strength of the mediated relationship between LMX and employee creativity via perceived insider status, such that the mediated relationship is stronger under high‐perceived LMX differentiation than under low‐perceived LMX differentiation.     

创造性人格与员工创造力:一个被调节的中介模型研究

本文基于动机行动和成就动机理论,构建一个被调节的中介模型以检验创造性人格对员工创造力产生的作用机理。以251套来自主管-下属配对的问卷数据为样本,实证分析结果表明:创造性人格可预测员工创造力产生,学习目标导向与绩效证明目标导向在两者之间起部分中介作用;内在动机能够强化个体目标导向对创造力的作用,并显著正向调节创造性人格对员工创造力的间接效应。最后,论文讨论了研究发现对员工创造力产生的理论和实践意义。     

Creative People Create Values: Creativity and Positive Arousal in Negotiations

Most negotiations are ill-structured situations, and the ability to identify novel options is likely to be crucial for success. This study, therefore, examined how creativity impacts negotiation processes and outcomes, and how this effect is moderated by positive arousal. The negotiators’ creative personality and their state of positive arousal were measured before they participated in a simulated negotiation, with the results demonstrating that the level of creativity in negotiation dyads was positively related to the negotiators’ joint outcome. Negotiators in high creativity dyads searched for more information by asking questions about priorities and were less narrowly focused by providing fewer single-issue offers than negotiators in low creativity dyads. Positive arousal did not affect outcome directly, but moderated the effect of creativity on joint outcomes; the effect of creativity was strongest under high levels of positive arousal. The discussion section emphasizes that future research may find creativity to have even more of a positive effect when negotiations become more complex.     

Teachers’ Perceptions of Students’ Creativity in China’s Classrooms: The Role of Students’ Academic Achievement and Misbehaviors

Teachers can be biased, especially toward low achievers and students with behavioral issues. However, creative students often appear to be disruptive in the classroom, and many of them struggle academically. The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which teachers’ perceptions of students’ creativity is associated with students’ academic achievement and classroom (mis)behaviors, as well as to examine the interaction between these two factors. Three hundred and fifty‐four eighth‐grade students selected from five middle schools in China participated in this study. Using achievement scores, peer nominations, a divergent thinking test, a self‐rated ideational behavior scale, and teacher ratings, the present study found that, whereas creativity has no significant relationship with teachers’ perceptions, academic achievements and misbehavior are significantly associated within structors’ perceptions. The achievement bias resulted in the underestimation of low achievers’ creativity, even when the low achievers were highly creative. More nuances emerged when student misbehaviors were considered. Specifically, misbehaving low achievers’ originality was further underestimated even when they were highly original. In contrast, teachers overestimated well‐behaved high achievers’ creativity, even when the students comprised the lowest creativity group. The results are further discussed from a socio‐cultural perspective.     

艺术创造力的脑神经生理基础

艺术创造力(Artistic Creativity)是创造力领域特异性研究的重要成果。它是个体产生新颖、独特而具有审美或艺术价值产品的能力, 和科学创造力一样也属于个体创造力的范畴。研究通过对已有脑损伤研究和神经影像研究梳理, 归纳和总结了艺术创造力的脑神经基础, 指出艺术创造力与科学创造力的神经基础存在一定差异, 认为艺术创造力主要和大脑的额叶、颞叶以及颞顶联合皮层密切相关。未来研究则需进一步借助巧妙的实验设计, 在严格控制个体差异和文化效应的基础上来对艺术创造力的脑结构和功能基础进行更细致的探讨。     

The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits

This paper re‐examines the commonly observed inverse relationship between perceived risk and perceived benefit. We propose that this relationship occurs because people rely on affect when judging the risk and benefit of specific hazards. Evidence supporting this proposal is obtained in two experimental studies. Study 1 investigated the inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgments under a time‐pressure condition designed to limit the use of analytic thought and enhance the reliance on affect. As expected, the inverse relationship was strengthened when time pressure was introduced. Study 2 tested and confirmed the hypothesis that providing information designed to alter the favorability of one's overall affective evaluation of an item (say nuclear power) would systematically change the risk and benefit judgments for that item. Both studies suggest that people seem prone to using an ‘affect heuristic’ which improves judgmental efficiency by deriving both risk and benefit evaluations from a common source—affective reactions to the stimulus item. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

创造力有其“阴暗面”

创造力有其“阴暗面”。从产品角度而言,创造力可产出伤害性或消极的产品;从个体角度而言,高创造力者可能具有一些消极特征,如精神疾病易感性强、宜人性差、说谎、不诚信等;从情境角度而言,高创造力表现可能与不信任感、生存危机感、社会拒绝等消极因素有关。未来研究应开发高生态效度的恶意创造力测评工具,改进计算恶意创造力水平的算法,探索消极个体特征和消极情境因素作用于创造性思维的认知与神经机制。     

工作-家庭支持对员工创造力的影响探讨

采用问卷调查法, 以773对上级-下属配对数据为样本, 探讨了工作-家庭支持对员工创造力的影响及其内在作用机制。结果表明, 在我国文化背景下, 工作-家庭支持由组织支持、领导支持、情感性支持和工具性支持四个因素组成, 其中组织支持和领导支持统称为工作领域支持, 情感性支持和工具性支持统称为家庭领域支持; 工作投入中介工作领域支持对员工创造力的影响; 创造性人格在工作投入与员工创造力关系之间起调节作用。     

Personality,creativity and latent inhibition

The current study set out to investigate the relationship between creativity, multi‐dimensional schizotypy and personality more generally. This was achieved by analysing scores on a range of personality scales and measures of creativity, where it was found that the creativity measures were more closely related to asocial‐schizotypy than positive‐schizotypy. The study also sought to test Eysenck's prediction ( 1993 , 1995 ) that, given the putative relationship between creativity and psychosis‐proneness, high psychosis‐prone scoring individuals and high creativity scoring individuals would demonstrate the same cognitive style of ‘overinclusiveness’ on latent inhibition. However, the results failed to demonstrate any evidence of a shared ‘widening of the associative horizon’ between high creativity and high psychosis‐prone scorers. The findings are discussed in relation to multi‐dimensional schizotypy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the Role of Self-Confidence,Need-for-Cognition,and the Degree of IT Support on Individual Creativity: Multilevel Analysis Approach

In today’s creative economy, individuals generally have not been regarded as reservoirs of creativity who yield sustainable growth in hypercompetitive markets. Individuals rely on IT support to reduce clerical loads and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their work as well. When they work in teams, they also require self-confidence and the need for cognition to promote their individual creativity. Data were derived from the members of a large system integration company in South Korea (N = 256, 50 teams). As the study considered variables at both the team and individual levels, we adopted a multilevel analysis approach. We found that individual self-confidence, which indicates the degree of perceived possibility of success at a task, and the need for cognition, the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy thinking, affected individual creativity significantly. Further, the degree of IT support, the team-level variable, had a significant effect on individual creativity. The degree of IT support did not have a significant effect on the relationship between self-confidence and individual creativity, but did have a moderating effect that weakened the relationship between the need for cognition and individual creativity. These findings have implications for theories of members’ creativity in organizations.     

Incremental effects of reward on creativity

The authors examined 2 ways reward might increase creativity. First, reward contingent on creativity might increase extrinsic motivation. Studies 1 and 2 found that repeatedly giving preadolescent students reward for creative performance in 1 task increased their creativity in subsequent tasks. Study 3 reported that reward promised for creativity increased college students' creative task performance. Second, expected reward for high performance might increase creativity by enhancing perceived self-determination and, therefore, intrinsic task interest. Study 4 found that employees' intrinsic job interest mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and creative suggestions offered at work. Study 5 found that employees' perceived self-determination mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and the creativity of anonymous suggestions for helping the organization.