When are rewards bad for creativity? examining the role of leadership and integrated extrinsic motivation

Abstract

The relationship between common creativity antecedents and creative performance is seldom clarified and the assertion that employee attitudinal and work environment factors spur creative performance has rarely been tested. The present study adopts an individual level of analysis and investigates the association between leader behaviors, employee extrinsic motivation, creative performance behaviors and creative performance in the Indian R&D context. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire from 493 scientists working in 11 government-owned R&D laboratories of India and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships between the study variables. The study found evidence for the mediating role of employee integrated extrinsic motivation for the relationship between leadership and creativity (behaviors as well as performance). Building on the foundations of organismic integration and self-determination theories, the study shows that extrinsic motivation is positively related to creativity when the value of rewards is integrated to one’s sense of self. Extrinsic motivation, otherwise, was found not to be related to creativity. Supervisory leadership was shown to be positively related to employee integrated extrinsic motivation. Thus, the study also provides an insight into the underlying process through which leaders can impact employee creativity at workplace. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.