Idea championing article

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

Just published, thanks to my amazing and persisent team of co-authors:

Černe, M., Kaše, R., & Škerlavaj. M. (2022): Idea championing as a missing link between idea generation and team innovation implementation: A situated emergence approach, European Management Journal, 2022, ISSN 0263-2373.

Abstract We examine idea championing as a key intermediary process of the idea journey linking idea generation and idea implementation in teams. Building upon multilevel framework of emergence we theorize about how compositional and compilational emergence of idea generation along with idea championing behaviors translate team members’ creative ideas into team-level innovative solutions. We adopt a two-study research design including a two-wave two-source field study (309 employees nested into 92 teams with direct supervisors) and an experimental study (423 students nested into 79 teams) to test our conceptual model. The results of field study show that team innovation process featuring strong compilational (selected actor-maximum) idea generating followed by compilational idea championing leads to best team-level innovative solutions. Using a sociometric approach as a part of an experimental study, we further show that individuals exhibiting the strongest idea generating activity are also significantly more likely the ones engaging in most intense idea championing behavior. While having team members exhibiting such exceptional behaviors is relatively more effective in an unstructured team innovation setup, structured idea journey setups result in better team-level innovative solutions, when idea championing behaviors are more equally distributed among team members. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Human resource development and performance

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

Tomislav Hernaus (University of Zagreb), Matej Černe (University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business), and myself just published a research article The interplay between relational job design and cross‐training in predicting employee job/task citizenship performance in the journal Human Resource Development Quarterly (top 3 in the field of industrial relations and labor). Above all, we were interested how human resource managers and leaders in general can utilize modern approaches towards training and job design to improve employee performance. Welcome to read and comment.

Abstract: Drawing on a relational perspective to human resource development and management (HRD/M), a multilevel and multisource field study has been conducted examining how HRM practices of job interaction requirements/task interdependence and HRD practice of cross‐training interplay in order to enhance employees’ job/task citizenship performance (JCP). A two‐level research model from a sample of 43 organizations and 535 nested individuals demonstrates that socially enriched jobs (interactive and interdependent), when supplemented with organizational (system‐wide) cross‐training opportunities, increase extra efforts among employees to complete activities which are not part of their in‐role requirements. Thus, by applying a 1‐2‐1 moderation analysis, we offer new knowledge about social and cognitive aspects of human behavior above and beyond the traditional focus on narrowly defined job/task performance. In addition, we explicate how mutual understanding across job positions may practically contribute to achieving superior individual‐level JCP when relational architecture of the workplace is designed.

Tell me if you can: time pressure, prosocial motivation, perspective taking, and knowledge hiding

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

Welcome to read our recent publication on knowledge hiding, that aims to contribute to the nomological network of knowledge hiding construct by expanding the list of antecedents and contingencies to time pressure, prosocial motivation, and perspective taking.

Below is the abstract:

The belief that knowledge actually expands when it is shared has been deeply rooted in the mainstream knowledge management literature. Although many organizations and managers expect employees to share their knowledge with their colleagues, this does not always occur. This study aims to use the conservation of resources theory to explain why employees who experience greater time pressure are more likely to engage in knowledge hiding; it further considers how this behavior may be moderated by these employees’ prosocial motivation and perspective taking. The paper uses quantitative multi-study research design as a combination of two-wave field study among 313 employees at an insurance company and a lab experimental study. In the field study (Study 1), the authors find that perceived time pressure is positively related to knowledge hiding. Furthermore, this relationship is moderated by prosocial motivation: employees who perceive greater time pressure hide knowledge only when they are low in prosocial motivation. An experiment (Study 2) replicates these findings, and finds that perspective taking mediates the moderating effect of prosocial motivation on the relationship between time pressure and knowledge hiding.

Reference:

Škerlavaj, M., Connelly, C. E., Cerne, M., & Dysvik, A. (2018). Tell me if you can: time pressure, prosocial motivation, perspective taking, and knowledge hiding. Journal of Knowledge Management, https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-05-2017-0179.

Perceived mastery climate, felt trust, and knowledge sharing

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

We know how important trust is for oh-so-many reasons. How important is it to actually feel trusted? Our study reveals that felt trust plays an essential role for knowledge sharing behaviors. Summary below, while the article is available from the following link.

Interpersonal trust is associated with a range of adaptive outcomes, including knowledge sharing. However, to date, our knowledge of antecedents and consequences of employees feeling trusted by supervisors in organizations remains limited. On the basis of a multisource, multiwave field study among 956 employees from five Norwegian organizations, we examined the predictive roles of perceived mastery climate and employee felt trust for employees’ knowledge sharing. Drawing on the achievement goal theory, we develop and test a model to demonstrate that when employees perceive a mastery climate, they are more likely to feel trusted by their supervisors at both the individual and group levels. Moreover, the relationship between employees’ perceptions of a mastery climate and supervisor‐rated knowledge sharing is mediated by perceptions of being trusted by the supervisor. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Source: Nerstad, C.G.L., Searle, R., Černe, M., Dysvik, A., Škerlavaj, M., & Scherer, R. (2017): Perceived mastery climate, felt trust, and knowledge sharing, Journal of Organizational Behavior, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.2241/epdf.

Riding two Horses at Once: The Combined Roles of Mastery and Performance Climates in Implementing Creative Ideas

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

Innovation paradox is a reason behind much of trouble within and around innovation processes. What works on the front end of creative process, does not necessarily contribute to the innovation outcomes. Continuing our work that started with exploring role of perceived supervisor support and more extensive Capitalizing on creativity book project, we now present finding from Chinese and Slovenian employees on the role of motivational climates for innovation. Below you will find the abstract of our recent publication in the European Management Review:

Not all creative ideas end up being implemented. Drawing on micro-innovation literature and achievement goal theory, we propose that the interplay of two types of work motivational climates (mastery and performance) moderates a curvilinear relationship between the frequency of idea-generation and idea-implementation behavior. Field studies in two non-Western countries (China, with a study of 117 employees nested within 21 groups, and Slovenia, with a study of 240 employees nested within 34 groups) revealed a three-way interaction of idea generation, performance climate, and mastery climate as joint predictors of idea implementation. Specifically, results of random coefficient modeling show that when combined, mastery and performance climates transform the relationship between the frequency of idea generation and idea implementation from an inverse U-shaped curvilinear relationship to a positive and more linear one. These findings suggest that ideas are most frequently implemented in organizational contexts characterized by both high-mastery and high-performance climates. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Source: Škerlavaj, M., Černe, M., Dysvik, A., Nerstad, C. G. L., and Su, C. (2017): Riding two Horses at Once: The Combined Roles of Mastery and Performance Climates in Implementing Creative Ideas. European Management Review, doi: 10.1111/emre.12151.