Why seeking feedback from diverse sources may not be sufficient for stimulating creativity: The role of performance dynamism and creative time pressure

• Author: Michiel Crommelinck,Frederik Anseel,Alain De Beuckelaer,Katleen E. M. De Stobbeleir,Roy B. L. Sijbom
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2235
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Why seeking feedback from diverse sources may not be

sufficient for stimulating creativity: The role of performance

dynamism and creative time pressure

Roy B. L. Sijbom

1

|Frederik Anseel

2,3

|Michiel Crommelinck

3

|Alain De Beuckelaer

4,3

|

Katleen E. M. De Stobbeleir

5,6

1

Department of Work and Organizational

Psychology, University of Amsterdam,

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2

King's Business School, King's College

London, London, U.K.

3

Department of Personnel Management,

Work and Organizational Psychology, Ghent

University, Ghent, Belgium

4

Institute for Management Research, Radboud

University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

5

Department of People and Organization,

Vlerick Business School, Ghent, Belgium

6

Department of Work and Organisation

Studies, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Correspondence

Roy B. L. Sijbom, Department of Work and

Organizational Psychology, University of

Amsterdam, PO Box 15919, 1001 NK

Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Email: r.b.l.sijbom@uva.nl

Funding information

Agency for Innovation by Science and Tech-

nology, Grant/Award Number: SBO‐M

090052; Intercollegiate Centre for Manage-

ment Science (ICM); Vlerick Academic

Research Fund (ARF)

Summary

We explorehow the impact of seekingfeedback from differentsources (i.e.,feedback source variety)

on employeecreativity is shapedby perceptions of the workenvironment. Specifically,we argue that

two contextualfactors, namely, performance dynamism(Study 1) and creative time pressure(Study

2), moderatethe relationshipbetween feedback sourcevariety and creativitysuch that under condi-

tionsof high performance dynamismand low creativetime pressure, individualsbenefit from diverse

feedback information. In Study 1 (N= 1,031),the results showed that under conditions of high per-

formance dynamism, the relationship between feedbacksource variety and self‐reported creativity

was nonlinear, withemployee creativity exponentially increasing as a function of feedback source

variety.Similarly, in Study 2 (N= 181),we found that under conditionsof low creative timepressure,

the relationship between feedback source variety and employee creativity was nonlinear, with

supervisor‐rated creative performance exponentiallyincreasing at higher levels of feedbacksource

variety. Such results highlight that the relationship between feedback source variety and creative

performanceis affected by the perceptionsof the work environment in whichfeedback is sought.

KEYWORDS

creativetime pressure, creativity,diversity, feedbacksource variety, feedback seeking,performance

dynamism

1|INTRODUCTION

The notion that obtaining external feedback about one's ideas is essen-

tial for increasing creativity is deeply rooted in many organizational

domains. For instance, entrepreneurs are encouraged to “get out of

the building”to check with prospective customers about whether their

business model will hold in the real world; R&D departments invite

people from outside the company to gather initial reactions towards

their new product prototypes; and academics attend conferences to

obtain feedback on their studies. By gaining diverse viewpoints from

others on one's ideas and cognitively processing and integrating these

viewpoints with their own, individuals should be able to increase their

creative performance (Dokko, Kane, & Tortoriello, 2013; Madjar, 2005;

Mumford & Gustafson, 1988). In support of this view, De Stobbeleir,

Ashford, and Buyens (2011) showed that proactively seeking feedback

from a variety of feedback sources enhanced creative performance.

An implicit assumption of research on feedback source variety is

that once feedback seekers have sought feedback, they will also utilize

the obtained feedback. This involves appropriately weighing, combin-

ing, and integrating the available feedback information into a cognitive

structure for subsequent creative performance (De Dreu, Baas, et al.,

2008; Li, Maggitti, Smith, Tesluk, & Katila, 2013). Utilizing feedback

information is necessary for feedback to yield positive outcomes.

Although scholars have identified a wide range of individual and

contextual antecedents of feedback‐seeking behavior (for overviews,

see Anseel, Beatty, Shen, Lievens, & Sackett, 2015; Ashford, De

Received: 11 March 2015 Revised: 14 August 2017 Accepted: 18 August 2017

DOI: 10.1002/job.2235

J Organ Behav. 2018;39:355–368. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 355