Digital knowledge sharing and creative performance: Work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic

Øystein Tønnessen,Amandeep Dhir,Bjørn-Tore Flåten

doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120866

Øystein Tønnessen, Amandeep Dhir + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120866

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Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting social distancing requirements have led to major disruptions in the world of work. The outcomes of the enforced and large-scale work from home (WFH) practices are currently largely unexplored. This study aims to address this gap in the research by investigating the external and internal digital knowledge sharing (DKS) and creative performance (CP) of employees under these extraordinary circumstances. The social capital theory was utilized as the theoretical lens for examining the associations of DKS and CP with demographic, individual, and organizational factors. An online cross-sectional survey was carried out among knowledge workers based in Norway during the pandemic lockdown. The study results indicate that internal and external DKS are significant predictors of CP in the WFH context during the COVID-19 pandemic. Females and older employees are more likely to engage in external DKS than their counterparts. Furthermore, individual motivation is found to be positively associated with internal DKS, external DKS, and CP. The findings suggest that increased use of digital platforms helps increase CP in the WFH setting resulting from the pandemic. Various theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and future research avenues are proposed.

Highlights

The year 1666—when the Great Plague of London had led King Charles II to impose a lockdown—was Sir Isaac Newton’s annus mirabilis, or “year of wonders”, during which he made groundbreaking discov eries, including the law of gravitation (Whiteside, 1966)
Given the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread lock downs, the objective of this study is to investigate whether higher cre ative performance could be a potential outcome for individuals who work from home during this period
The survey data suggest that 41% of the participating knowledge workers believed that their creative performance (CP) has increased and 22% believed that their CP has decreased while work from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The year 1666—when the Great Plague of London had led King Charles II to impose a lockdown—was Sir Isaac Newton’s annus mirabilis, or “year of wonders”, during which he made groundbreaking discov eries, including the law of gravitation (Whiteside, 1966). Given the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread lock downs, the objective of this study is to investigate whether higher cre ative performance could be a potential outcome for individuals who work from home during this period. Recent studies have indicated that the pandemic has led to an exponential boost in the growth and use of digital communication and supporting technologies because organizations are being forced to innovate and change (Chan dra et al, 2020; Savic, 2020). Scholars recognize creativity to be a way of coping with uncertainty by challenging old assumptions and trying new things (Ford, 1996). CP refers to individual creativity and includes risk-taking, adopting new ways of thinking and doing, and initiating change (Ford et al, 2008; Goh et al, 2020). CP at the workplace is defined as an indi vidual employee’s generation of novel ideas, products, services or pro cedures, that are potentially useful for the organization (Amabile, 1996; Zhou and Oldham, 2001). Woodman et al (1993) have provided an interactional perspective on CP, which posits that CP is a consequence of complex interactions between individual (e.g., motivation) and contextual factors (e.g., organizational climate)

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