I want to be creative but …

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

EJWOPDarija Aleksić, Matej Černe, Anders Dysvik and myself in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology with couple of thoughs about preference for creativity and the creative performance at work. And the way clarity of goals and work enjoyment might matter with this regard …

Abstract

In today’s quickly changing work environment, many individuals want to be creative at their workplace, but only some of them succeed at manifesting these tendencies. In three studies, using both field and experimental data, we focused on transforming individuals’ preference for creativity, defined as an inclination for liking and wanting to be creative, into actual creativity. We first conducted a pilot Study 1 to establish discriminant validity to related constructs and provided initial evidence on predictive and incremental validity of the preference-for-creativity scale. Next, we performed a field Study 2, where we found that transforming preferences for creativity into supervisor-rated creativity is contingent upon employees’ perceptions of clear outcome goals. Clear outcome goals fostered individuals’ preference for creativity to result in higher levels of supervisor-rated creative behaviour—a finding that was replicated in an experimental Study 3. Furthermore, we explored whether work enjoyment mediated the moderated relationship between preference for creativity and creative outcomes. The results supported our mediated moderation model, whereby the manipulation of clear goals led to higher work enjoyment, influencing individuals’ preference for creativity to result in higher ratings of their creative outcomes.

JEEMS publication: Organizational learning culture in seven countries

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

I’d like to announce the following publication: Miha Škerlavaj, Chunke Su, Meikuan Huang: The moderating effects of national culture on the development of organizational learning culture: A multilevel study across seven countries, JEEMS, 18(1): 97-134. Below is the abstract:

This study examines the moderating effects of national culture dimensions (Hofstede 1980) on three key elements in the development of organisational learning culture: information acquisition, information interpretation and behavioral and cognitive changes. Data were collected from 1333 companies in three CEE countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia) and other regions. The results showed that four national cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance) had no significant moderating effects on the relationship between information acquisition and information interpretation. However, the relationship between information interpretation and behavioral and cognitive changes was positively moderated by power distance, and negatively moderated by individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance.

Publication in the Leadership

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

LeadershipFor those of us interested in leading creativity and innovation, there is a new publication of ours, fresh from the oven: Černe, M., Jaklič, M., & Škerlavaj, M. (2013): Authentic leadership, creativity, and innovation: A multilevel perspective, Leadership, 9(1): 63-85.

This study aims to propose and empirically test a multilevel model of cross-level interactions between authentic leadership and innovation at the team level, and perception of support for innovation and creativity at the individual level. We use data from 23 team leaders and 289 team members in a Slovenian manufacturing and processing firm engaged in producing innovative products and customer solutions and conduct a multilevel analysis using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM). The results indicate that whereas perceived team leaders’ authentic leadership directly influences team members’ individual creativity and team innovation, the impact of self-ascribed team leaders’ authentic leadership was not significant. In addition to that, the relationship between team leaders’ authenticity and creativity is mediated by perception of support for innovation. Using a multilevel approach, this is the first study to our knowledge to quantitatively examine the relationship between authentic leadership and creativity and innovation. In addition, unlike previous research on related topics that relied solely on one source of information, we examine authentic leadership with empirical data gathered from both team leaders and their employees.

Your ideas, comments more than welcome!

Publication in the AMJ

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

AMJ_cover_blankThanks to a wonderful group of co-authors and friends from Slovenia and Norway, amazingly developmental feedback from the three anonymous reviewers and AMJ associate editor Adam Grant, we got accepted our first Academy of Management Journal publication:

ČERNE, Matej, NERSTAD, Christina, DYSVIK, Anders, ŠKERLAVAJ, Miha (Forthcomming): What goes around comes around: Knowledge hiding, perceived motivational climate, and creativity.  Academy of Management Journal. 

Here is the abstract for those interested:

Knowledge hiding prevents colleagues from generating creative ideas, but it may also have negative consequences for the creativity of the knowledge hider. Drawing on social exchange theory, we propose that when employees hide knowledge, they trigger a reciprocal distrust loop in which coworkers are unwilling to share knowledge with them. We further suggest that these effects are contingent on the motivational climate such that the negative effects of hiding knowledge on one’s own creativity are enhanced in a performance climate and attenuated in a mastery climate. A field study of 240 employees, nested into 34 groups, revealed a negative relationship between knowledge hiding and the knowledge hider’s creativity as well as the moderating role of a mastery climate. Study 2 replicated these findings in an experimental study of 132 undergraduate students, testing a reciprocal distrust loop and comparing it with an alternative intra-psychic explanatory process based on situational regulatory focus. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

You never forget your first time! 🙂

In good company: this time among SSRN top 3

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

Good news, an article Skerlavaj, Miha, Song, Ji Hoon and Lee, Youngmin (2010), Organizational Learning Culture, Innovative Culture and Innovations in South Korean Firms (March 24, 2010). Expert Systems with Applications,  seems to spark a significant amount of interest among colleagues worldwide and was ranked 3rd at the Top 10 downloaded list within the Innovation and Organisational Behavior category.

EJIM publication on organizational learning culture in Macedonian companies

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

Together with our Macedonian colleagues, we published ŠKERLAVAJ, Miha, ČERNE, Matej, KEKENOVSKI, Ljubomir, TEVDOVSKI, Dragan, TRPKOVA, Marija (2011). The organisational learning culture and organisational performance in Macedonian companies. European journal of international management, 5(6): 574-601.

The purpose of the paper is to construct, present and test a model that describes the effect of organisational learning culture on organisational
performance improvement. To this end, we use data of 202 Macedonian companies and empirically test the model via structural equation modelling.
We found that organisational learning culture has a direct and relatively strong  impact on non-financial performance from the employee, customer and
supplier perspective. A direct but relatively smaller effect can be noticed on the financial performance. Managers need to be aware that such norms and values
that ascribe high importance to information acquisition, distribution and interpretation need to be developed in order to achieve higher levels of
organisational performance. The paper contributes to the generalisation of a research model previously tested in more-developed economies based on the
data gathered in Macedonia, a developing country in transition.

The study builds upon our previous awarded and cited paper in International Journal of Production Economics (2007) and aims to generalize by controlling for a different setting of national culture as well as stage of economic development.

Top Ten @ SSRN again

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

Our paper Transactional and Transformational Leadership Impacts on Organizational Learning, JEEMS (2009), was recently listed on Social Science Research Network’s (SSRN) Top Ten download list for ORG: Organizational Learning. It is available here.

Članek o inovacijah v poslovnih modelih

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

V reviji MQ Združenja Manager (št. 15, september 2010, str. 21) je izšel članek sodelavcev Ekonomske Fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (EF) in Centra odličnosti za biosenzoriko, instrumentacijo in procesno kontrolo (COBIK) Černe, M., Škerlavaj, M., & Jaklič, M. (2009): Prebudimo zmaja z inovacijami v poslovnih modelih. Gre za članek v katerem avtorji izpostavljamo pomen in neizkoriščenost inovacij v poslovnih modelih v slovenskem okolju. Prikažemo tudi nekaj kratkih primerov iz tuje in slovenske prakse (Zappos, Mondragon, IBM, Cash Cab, Trimo, Instrumentation Technologies, in Zemanta).

Top 10 cited 2007-2010!

Posted on by Miha Škerlavaj

I am both proud and happy to announce that the paper Škerlavaj, M., Štemberger, M.I., Škrinjar, R., & Dimovski, V. (2007): Organizational learning culture—the missing link between business process change and organizational performance, International Journal of Production Economics, 106(2):346-367 was awarded as Top 10 most cited papers in the journal between year 2007 and 2010! Another great confirmation and inducement for future work.