"Creativity"or"Stability"?Research on the Cognitive Path and Adoption Intention of Managers to Employees'Novel Ideas
In the VUCA(volatile,uncertain,complex and ambiguous)era,employee creativity is the source for organi-zations to enhance organizational creativity and competitive potential.Managers crave and actively promote creativity,but often overlook or even punish highly novel ideas.Employees'creativity often ends up unadopted and barely better than nothing.This article focuses on managers'cognitive path and decision-making process towards employees'novel ideas.Based on the variation-selection-retention(VSR)theoretical model and using the multi-level structural equation modeling method,this study explores and analyzes the key factors and core mechanisms that hinder managers from adopting em-ployee creativity.Questionnaire surveys were conducted with 51 managers and 267 employees in a matched-pair design.The results show that:(1)There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between idea novelty and managers'adoption willing-ness;(2)Managers'cognition plays a nonlinear mediating role between idea novelty and adoption willingness.The inverted U-shaped relationship essentially results from the interaction between competitive cognition and feasibility cognition;(3)Employees'different championing behaviors have differentiated effects on managers'cognition and willingness formation.The main contributions and innovations of this study are as follows:Firstly,the core reason for the imbalance between creativity supply and demand is the difference in value cognition between employees and managers.Novelty and creativity are often seen by employees as the core elements that can bring competitive advantage to the organization.However,managers are more concerned with projects that are consistent with organizational strategic goals,based on dominant logic and path dependence.Therefore,for managers,novelty is not"the more,the better."As the degree of novelty increases,the negative effects of uncertainty and risk continue to grow.There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between novelty and managers'adoption.This study explains the inconsistent results in previous studies from the perspective of role differences,which helps to more comprehensively explore and understand the deeper reasons for the low adoption rate of creative ideas.Secondly,competitive and feasibility cognitions are the core confronting mechanisms for managers to perceive the value of creative ideas and influence their final willingness.The contradictory psychology of managers craving yet rejecting creativity is also rooted in this.This article breaks away from the linear relationship or single mechanism approaches in existing studies on the relationship between novelty and adoption willingness.On the basis of deepening the rational struc-tural dimensions of managers'cognition,it analyzes and points out the core reason for the inverted U-shaped relationship between novelty and adoption.Thirdly,existing research has yielded many findings on why managers tend to reject novel ideas,with most studies focusing on main effects and mediating mechanisms.However,exploration of boundary conditions is very limited.In response to calls from Yu et al.(2008,2010),Parker et al.(2006,2010)and others for the academic community to focus on the influencing role of employees'proactive behaviors in the innovation process,this study explores and finds that em-ployees'idea championing behaviors have significant positive reinforcement effects in influencing managers'cognition and adoption of ideas,which can effectively enhance managers'acceptance and tolerance.But different advocacy behaviors are suitable for different stages.While being proactive in advocating ideas,employees must pay attention to methods,timing and appropriateness.The research conclusions reveal the"double-edged sword"effect of novelty on managers'willingness to adopt,deepen the study of managers'decision-making logic,and provide valuable insights for managers on how to recognize creativity and for employees on how to reverse the situation.
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