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Full-Text Articles in Labor Relations

The Liberating Consequences Of Creative Work: How A Creative Outlet Lifts The Physical Burden Of Secrecy, Jack Goncalo, Lynne Vincent, Verena Krause Apr 2015

The Liberating Consequences Of Creative Work: How A Creative Outlet Lifts The Physical Burden Of Secrecy, Jack Goncalo, Lynne Vincent, Verena Krause

Jack Goncalo

A newly emerging stream of research suggests creativity can be fruitfully explored, not as an outcome variable, but as a contributor to the general cognitive and behavioral responding of the individual. In this paper, we extend this nascent area of research on the consequences of creativity by showing that working on a creative task can contribute to feelings of liberation— feelings that can help people to overcome psychological burdens. We illustrate the liberating effects of creativity by integrating the embodied cognition literature with recent research showing that keeping a secret is experienced as a psychological and physical burden. While secrecy …


Creativity From Constraint? How Political Correctness Influences Creativity In Mixed-Sex Work Groups, Jack Goncalo, Jennifer Chatman, Michelle Duguid, Jessica Kennedy Aug 2014

Creativity From Constraint? How Political Correctness Influences Creativity In Mixed-Sex Work Groups, Jack Goncalo, Jennifer Chatman, Michelle Duguid, Jessica Kennedy

Jack Goncalo

Most group creativity research is premised on the assumption that creativity is unleashed by removing normative constraints. As work organizations become increasingly diverse in terms of gender, however, this assumption needs to be reconsidered since mixed-sex interactions carry a high risk of offense. Departing from the assumption that normative constraints necessarily stifle creativity, we develop a theoretical perspective in which creativity in mixed-sex groups is enhanced by imposing a norm to be politically correct (PC)—a norm that sets clear expectations for how men and women should interact with one another. We present evidence from two group experiments showing that the …


Outside Advantage: Can Social Rejection Fuel Creative Thought?, Sharon H. Kim, Lynne C. Vincent, Jack Goncalo Aug 2012

Outside Advantage: Can Social Rejection Fuel Creative Thought?, Sharon H. Kim, Lynne C. Vincent, Jack Goncalo

Jack Goncalo

Eminently creative people working in fields as disparate as Physics and Literature refer to the experience of social rejection as fuel for creativity. Yet, the evidence of this relationship is anecdotal, and the psychological process that might explain it is as yet unknown. We theorize that the experience of social rejection may indeed stimulate creativity but only for individuals with an independent self-concept. In three studies, we show that individuals who hold an independent self-concept performed more creatively following social rejection relative to inclusion. We also show that this boost in creativity is mediated by a differentiation mindset, or salient …


Stretching The Moral Gray Zone: Positive Affect, Moral Disengagement And Dishonesty, Lynne C. Vincent, Kyle J. Emich, Jack A. Goncalo Aug 2012

Stretching The Moral Gray Zone: Positive Affect, Moral Disengagement And Dishonesty, Lynne C. Vincent, Kyle J. Emich, Jack A. Goncalo

Jack Goncalo

We propose that positive affect promotes dishonest behavior by providing the cognitive flexibility necessary to reframe and to rationalize dishonest acts. This hypothesis was tested in two studies. The results of Study 1 showed that individuals experiencing positive affect morally disengage to a greater extent than individuals experiencing neutral affect. Study 2 built upon this finding by demonstrating that the ability to morally disengage can lead individuals who experience positive affect to behave dishonestly. Specifically, the results of Study 2 show that people experiencing positive affect are more likely to steal than individuals who experience neutral affect, particularly when self-awareness …


Follow The Crowd In A New Direction: When Conformity Pressure Facilitates Group Creativity (And When It Does Not), Jack Goncalo, Michelle M. Duguid Jan 2012

Follow The Crowd In A New Direction: When Conformity Pressure Facilitates Group Creativity (And When It Does Not), Jack Goncalo, Michelle M. Duguid

Jack Goncalo

Adopting a person by situation interaction approach, we identified conditions under which conformity pressure can either stifle or boost group creativity depending on the joint effects of norm content and group personality composition. Using a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design, we hypothesized and found that pressure to adhere to an individualistic norm boosted creativity in groups whose members scored low on the Creative Personality Scale (Gough, 1979), but stifled creativity in groups whose members scored high on that measure. Our findings suggest that conformity pressure may be a viable mechanism for boosting group creativity, but only among those …


Living Large: The Powerful Overestimate Their Own Height, Michelle M. Duguid, Jack A. Goncalo Aug 2011

Living Large: The Powerful Overestimate Their Own Height, Michelle M. Duguid, Jack A. Goncalo

Jack Goncalo

Three experiments tested the prediction that individuals’ experience of power influences perceptions of their own height. Power decreased judgments of an object’s height relative to the self (Study 1), made participants overestimate their own height (Study 2) and caused participants to choose a taller avatar to represent them in a second-life game (Study 3). These results emerged regardless of whether power was experientially primed (Study 1 and 3) or manipulated through roles (Study 2). Although a great deal of research has shown that physically imposing individuals are more likely to acquire power, this work is the first to show that …


The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas, Jennifer S. Mueller, Shimul Melwani, Jack A. Goncalo Aug 2011

The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas, Jennifer S. Mueller, Shimul Melwani, Jack A. Goncalo

Jack Goncalo

People often reject creative ideas even when espousing creativity as a desired goal. To explain this paradox, we propose that people can hold a bias against creativity that is not necessarily overt, and which is activated when people experience a motivation to reduce uncertainty. In two studies, we measure and manipulate uncertainty using different methods including: discrete uncertainty feelings, and an uncertainty reduction prime. The results of both studies demonstrated a negative bias toward creativity (relative to practicality) when participants experienced uncertainty. Furthermore, the bias against creativity interfered with participants’ ability to recognize a creative idea. These results reveal a …


From A Mirage To An Oasis: Narcissism, Perceived Creativity, And Creative Performance, Jack Goncalo, Francis J. Flynn, Sharon H. Kim Jun 2010

From A Mirage To An Oasis: Narcissism, Perceived Creativity, And Creative Performance, Jack Goncalo, Francis J. Flynn, Sharon H. Kim

Jack Goncalo

We examine the link between narcissism and creativity at the individual, relational, and group levels of analysis. We find that narcissists are not necessarily more creative than others but they think they are, and they are adept at convincing others to agree with them. In the first study, narcissism was positively associated with self-rated creativity, despite the fact that blind coders saw no difference between the creative products offered by those low and high on narcissism. In a second study, more narcissistic individuals asked to pitch creative ideas to a target person were judged by the targets as being more …


Hidden Consequences Of The Group Serving Bias: Causal Attributions And The Quality Of Group Decision Making, Jack Goncalo, Michelle M. Duguid May 2010

Hidden Consequences Of The Group Serving Bias: Causal Attributions And The Quality Of Group Decision Making, Jack Goncalo, Michelle M. Duguid

Jack Goncalo

A long stream of research in attribution theory suggests that groups are biased toward attributing their success to factors that are internal to their group. However, the existing research has confounded two types of attributions that are both internal to the group, but theoretically distinct: (1) Attributions that differentiate between the contributions made by each individual group member and (2) attributions that focus on the group as a whole. This dichotomy is important because, drawing on theories of social influence, we predict that different types of attributions will have different consequences for the quality of group decision making. In experiment …


Past Success And Creativity Over Time: A Study Of Inventors In The Hard Disk Drive Industry, Pino G. Audia, Jack A. Goncalo May 2010

Past Success And Creativity Over Time: A Study Of Inventors In The Hard Disk Drive Industry, Pino G. Audia, Jack A. Goncalo

Jack Goncalo

We integrate psychological theories of individual creativity with organizational theories of exploration versus exploitation in order to examine the relationship between past success and creativity over time. A key prediction derived from this theoretical integration is that successful people should be more likely to generate new ideas, but these ideas will tend to be less divergent as they favor the exploitation of familiar knowledge at the expense of the exploration of new domains. This prediction departs from the often-held view that people who generate more ideas will also generate ideas that are more divergent. Analyses of patenting in the hard …


Can Confidence Come Too Soon? Collective Efficacy, Conflict And Group Performance Over Time, Jack Goncalo, Evan Polman, Christina Maslach May 2010

Can Confidence Come Too Soon? Collective Efficacy, Conflict And Group Performance Over Time, Jack Goncalo, Evan Polman, Christina Maslach

Jack Goncalo

Groups with a strong sense of collective efficacy set more challenging goals, persist in the face of difficulty, and are ultimately more likely to succeed than groups who do not share this belief. Given the many advantages that may accrue to groups who are confident, it would be logical to advise groups to build a high level of collective efficacy as early as possible. However, we draw on Whyte’s (1998) theory of collective efficacy and groupthink, to predict that when confidence emerges at a high level toward the beginning of a group’s existence, group members may be less likely to …