From Creativity to Implementation: Role of Sponsorship in Putting Employees' Ideas into Practice

Abstract

Creative ideas from employees often encounter several obstacles to implementation. We focus on the role of supervisory sponsorship of employees’ creative ideas as being key to understanding how employee creativity is converted into actual products, processes, or services (i.e., idea implementation). Using multisource data from 177 employees nested within 27 supervisors in a news-publishing firm, we find that supervisory sponsorship mediates the link between employee creativity and implementation. We also find that supervisors’ decision to sponsor their employees’ creativity depends on their dyadic exchange relationship (LMX) with these employees as well as the employees’ perceived expertise in the workgroup. Further, the effect of supervisor sponsorship on idea implementation was stronger when supervisors received support from other influential leaders in the organization. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.