Social Networks and Employee Creativity: The Impact of Individual and Alters\u27 Attributes and Network Structure on The Psychological Conditions Leading to Employee Creativity

As the Internet and global economy bring an explosion of information and complex new challenges, diverse knowledge and perspectives must be obtained through interactions with different people (Janssen, 2000; Paulus & Nijstad, 2003). Acknowledging the importance of employees’ social relationships, researchers have begun to take a “social network” approach to creativity and innovation (Baer, 2010; Brass, Galaskiewicz, Greve, & Tsai, 2004; Perry-Smith, 2006; Zhou, Shin, Brass, Choi, & Zhang, 2009). However, despite the burgeoning interest in social networks and the social aspect of creativity, much of the work has thus far examined how the structure of individuals’ social networks affects their creativity, while missing the influence of the employees\u27 social network contacts and the psychological mediating mechanisms. In this regard, I attempt to develop a comprehensive model of the impact of a focal actor, the focal actor’s network contacts, and network structure, on psycho-social conditions leading to employee creativity. The hypothesized model was tested in a sample of 111 employees and their supervisors from two Korean software engineering companies. As hypothesized, individuals whose idea network contacts possess diverse informational resources and provide emotional support for professional development were found better psychologically equipped to exhibit creativity. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed