Seeing value in novelty: Manager and employee social networks as keys in managers' idea evaluation and implementation decisions.

Employees' novel ideas often do not get recognized or valued by their managers, thus precluding these ideas from benefiting the organization. Drawing on the social-cognitive model of creativity evaluation (Zhou & Woodman, 2003) and integrating it with a social network (N/W) lens, this article investigates how characteristics of the social networks of managers and employees play a role in influencing managers' valuation of and willingness to implement novel employee ideas. In three studies-an experimental study manipulating idea novelty and the functional diversity of idea evaluators' (i.

Not very competent but connected: Leaders' use of employee social networks as prisms to make delegation decisions.

Delegation is a critical tool for busy managers. Early delegation research suggests that managers are reluctant to delegate beyond a few highly competent employees or those with whom they have a strong relationship. Extending this line of research, we integrate signaling theory with a view of social networks as "prisms," to demonstrate the relevance of employees' network ties in the work unit for delegation.

Tightening up the performance-pay linkage: roles of contingent reward leadership and profit-sharing in the cross-level influence of individual pay-for-performance.

Drawing upon line-of-sight (Lawler, 1990, 2000; Murphy, 1999) as a unifying concept, we examine the cross-level influence of organizational use of individual pay-for-performance (PFP), theorizing that its impact on individual employees' performance-reward expectancy is boosted by the moderating effects of immediate group managers' contingent reward leadership and organizational use of profit-sharing. Performance-reward expectancy is then expected to mediate the interactive effects of individual PFP with contingent reward leadership and profit-sharing on employee job performance. Analyses of cross-organizational and cross-level data from 912 employees in 194 workgroups from 45 companies reveal that organizations' individual PFP was positively related to employees' performance-reward expectancy, which was strengthened when it was accompanied by higher levels of contingent reward leadership and profit-sharing.

The influence of creative process engagement on employee creative performance and overall job performance: a curvilinear assessment.

Integrating theories addressing attention and activation with creativity literature, we found an inverted U-shaped relationship between creative process engagement and overall job performance among professionals in complex jobs in an information technology firm. Work experience moderated the curvilinear relationship, with low-experience employees generally exhibiting higher levels of overall job performance at low to moderate levels of creative process engagement and high-experience employees demonstrating higher overall performance at moderate to high levels of creative process engagement. Creative performance partially mediated the relationship between creative process engagement and job performance.