Getting the Picture Too Late: Handoffs and the Effectiveness of Idea Implementation in Creative Work
- 1 August 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Academy of Management in The Academy of Management Journal
- Vol. 64 (4), 1191-1212
- https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2019.1330
Abstract
Past research on idea implementation has focused on employees trying to win social support for their own ideas, but employees are often handed ideas to implement that were developed by others. We propose and test hypotheses on such handoffs, focusing on how handing employees relatively mature ideas to implement may lead them to build less creative final products. We tested our hypotheses using two studies: an archival study of 5,676 movies in the U.S. film industry and a complementary experiment. Results suggest that late handoffs yielded less creative final products than no or early handoffs, meaning it was costly to creativity when employees implemented relatively mature ideas without driving at least some of their prior development. However, serialized late handoffs—when implementers are handed relatively mature ideas after an earlier handoff between two other individuals—were less costly to creativity than late handoffs from one other individual. Mediation results suggest that late handoffs reduced implementers’ creativity by restricting their sense of psychological ownership and the coherence of their final products. This research advances theory on idea implementation, handoffs, and psychological ownership in creative work.Keywords
This publication has 69 references indexed in Scilit:
- Putting Creativity to Work: The Implementation of Creative Ideas in OrganizationsThe Academy of Management Journal, 2012
- The Psychology of OwnershipGroup & Organization Management, 2006
- Work Environment Structure and Psychological Ownership: The Mediating Effects of ControlThe Journal of Social Psychology, 2004
- The State of Psychological Ownership: Integrating and Extending a Century of ResearchReview of General Psychology, 2003
- Toward a Theory of Psychological Ownership in OrganizationsAcademy of Management Review, 2001
- Idea Generation in Groups: A Basis for Creativity in OrganizationsOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2000
- Group Preference and Convergent Tendencies in Small Groups: A Content Analysis of Group Brainstorming PerformanceCreativity Research Journal, 1999
- Technology Brokering and Innovation in a Product Development FirmAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1997
- Motivation through the design of work: test of a theoryOrganizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1976
- Recombination of ideas in creative thinking.Journal of Applied Psychology, 1946