Lovable fools and creativity in teams

Abstract

Although employees with low task performance are typically perceived as outcasts in organizations, one group of such employees has the potential to generate positive outcomes. We seek to understand how lovable fools (i.e., individuals with low task performance and high contextual performance) influence creativity within teams. Specifically, we study the countervailing effects of increased psychological safety and decreased useful feedback as mediators of the relationship between the perceived existence of lovable fools in a team and individual and team creativity. We conduct two studies using individual and team‐level analyses to examine the hypothesized direct and indirect effects. Our findings support a positive relationship between perceived existence of lovable fools and individual/team creativity through increased psychological safety, even after accounting for the effects of reduced useful feedback provided by lovable fools. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.