Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual work-related curiosity and worker innovation and to test the mediating role of worker divergent thinking.

In all, 480 participants, holding 188 different jobs, filled in a validated work-related curiosity scale and indicated their job title. Job requirements in terms of divergent thinking and innovation − derived from the Online Information Network (O*NET) database − were used as proxies for divergent thinking and innovation skills.

Results indicated that individual work-related curiosity was a positive predictor of worker innovation and that worker divergent thinking mediated this relationship.

Individual work-related curiosity supports exploratory skills which support in turn innovation skills.

Managers could use individual work-related curiosity as a predictor of innovation skills when recruiting, training and guiding employees.

This study is the first to show an association between individual work-related curiosity and innovation skills across more than 150 different jobs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new elements to understand, measure and predict managerial creativity. More specifically, based on new approaches to creative potential (Lubart et al., 2011), this study proposes to distinguish two aspects of managerial creative problem solving: divergent-exploratory thinking, in which managers try to generate several new solutions to a problem; and convergent-integrative thinking, in which managers select and elaborate one creative solution.

In this study, personality is examined as a predictor of managerial creative problem solving: On one hand, based on previous research on general divergent thinking (e.g. Ma, 2009), it is hypothesized that managerial divergent thinking is predicted by high openness to experience and low agreeableness. On the other hand, because efficient people management involves generating satisfying and trustful social interactions, it is hypothesized that convergent-integrative thinking ability is predicted by high agreeableness. In all, 137 adult participants completed two divergent-exploratory thinking managerial tasks and two convergent-integrative thinking managerial task and the Big Five Inventory (John and Srivastava, 1999).

As expected, divergent-exploratory thinking was predicted by openness to experience (r=0.21; p<0.05) and agreeableness (r=−0.22; p<0.05) and the convergent-integrative thinking part of managerial creative problem solving was predicted by agreeableness (r=0.28; p<0.001).

Contrary to most research on managerial creativity (e.g. Scratchley and Hakstian, 2001), the study focuses (and provides measure guidelines) on both divergent and convergent thinking dimensions of creative potential. This study replicates and extends previous results regarding the link between personality (especially agreeableness) and managerial creativity.

This paper aims to investigate the role of attention, processing motivation and processing depth in the relationship between self-reported subjective processing fluency and relevant advertisement variables such as ad attitude, brand attitude and purchase intentions.

Two empirical studies were conducted using self-report questionnaires.

In Study 1 (N = 176), the measure of self-reported subjective processing fluency was pretested. As expected, it was found to be sensitive to visual and semantic features of advertisements and to predict attitudes toward an advertisement. In Study 2 (N = 204), mediation analyses showed that self-reported subjective processing fluency was a predictor of attitude toward the advertisement (through attention and processing depth), attitude toward the brand (through processing depth) and purchase intentions (through processing depth).

The results emphasize the role of cognitive processing in explaining the effect of processing fluency on attitudes in marketing research.

Practitioners could use this theoretical framework and take into account the fluency with which consumers process information to improve the way they advertise their products.

The results suggest that self-reported subjective processing fluency can be relevant to predicting consumers’ attitudes because it increases attention and processing depth of the advertisement.

Numerous studies have linked the role of knowledge sharing with project success, while limited attention has been given to the consequences of knowledge hiding. The unwillingness of leaders to share information may cause the failure of assigned tasks, thus affecting the success of any project. Withholding information by leaders can potentially result in incomplete ideas, thus causing poor innovative work behaviour (IWB) among employees. Despite such knowledge-hiding behaviour, most employees continue working positively towards IWB.

In order to test these proposed hypotheses, data were collected from active information technology (IT) projects using purposive sampling technique. The purposive sampling method was selected to specifically focus on projects that require innovation. A total of 324 responses were considered for final analyses, which were collected in time lag.

The study outcomes amplified the important issue of knowledge-hiding behaviour among leaders that adversely affected the IT project industry and how such behaviour led to failure as a result of poor IWB. Apparently, IWB intervened between knowledge-hiding behaviour among leaders and project success. However, high curiosity among employees seemed to reduce the negative effects of knowledge-hiding behaviour among leaders.

This study substantially adds to the leadership literature and holds immense importance for project professionals by drawing their attention to the neglected area causing project failure.