Emulating Coworkers: How and When Coworker Ideation Facilitates Employee Ideation

ABSTRACT

In this research, we explore how coworker ideation levels or, more specifically, the average ideation levels of coworkers within a workgroup affect a focal employee’s ideation. We examine an underlying mechanism and a boundary condition of this influence process. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we argue that high coworker ideation levels are likely to stimulate a focal employee’s ideation by enhancing their creative self-efficacy. Furthermore, we suggest that this positive influence is likely to be strengthened when the focal employee has a higher than lower quality of exchange with their coworkers. The results of two field studies provide support for all of the hypotheses. Contributions to theory and insights into practice and future research are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

Informed consent was obtained from all participants in both studies.

Data availability

Data can be obtained upon request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 72002214, awarded to Xin Liu).