Gatekeeper or Innovator: When do Supervisors Ostracize Creative Employees?

Abstract

The burgeoning research interest on evaluation of creativity have mainly focused on the assessment of the technical content, the novelty and usefulness of creativity. The present study examines how the nontechnical aspect, like the power dynamics associated with creativity, influence supervisor’s evaluation and reaction toward employee creativity. Drawing upon the evolutionary leadership theory and social influence theories, this study aims to examine supervisor’s actual reactions toward employee creativity. The author proposes that whether supervisors will feel threatened or not depend on focal employee’s political skill. Specifically, employee creativity with low political skill will positively relate to supervisor’s feelings of threat. Further, supervisor’s feelings of threat are hypothesized to relate to supervisor ostracism positively. Moreover, the author proposes that there also exists a moderated mediation effect of employee’s political skill. A three-wave investigation with a sample of 199 supervisor-subordinate dyads supported our hypotheses. Implications of the model are described and future research directions are suggested.