The Bright and Dark Sides of Employee Creativity: The Roles of Authentic and Hubristic Pride
Prof. Mo CHEN
Associate Professor
School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology
Date: 14 February 2025 (Friday)
Time: 11:00 to 12:30
Venue: E22-G015
Host: Prof. Rico LAM, Professor in Management, University Registrar
Abstract
Research demonstrates that employee creativity can have paradoxical effects that can be constructive or destructive. Similarly, research shows that pride predicts both constructive and destructive behaviors. This present research seeks to connect and integrate these divergent literature in ways that shed light on when, how, and why employee creativity and pride affect coworker-directed constructive and destructive behaviors. Integrating attribution theory and the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, we build a theoretical model that we test in three time-lagged survey studies. Results demonstrate that employee creativity predicts authentic pride when creativity is attributed to effort, and it predicts hubristic pride when creativity is attributed to ability. Acknowledging the importance of context, we also show that average coworker creativity dampens the positive effect of creativity on hubristic pride more than on authentic pride. Lastly, authentic pride motivates coworker helping and inhibits coworker incivility, whereas hubristic pride does the opposite. Overall, the present research sheds new light on workplace creativity by explicating the cognitive and affective mechanisms that account for the paradoxical effects of creativity on coworker behaviors.
Speaker
Prof. Mo CHEN is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Management from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests include strategic leadership, behavioral ethics, prosocial behavior, and corporate social responsibility from a micro perspective. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Management and Organization Review. He serves on the editorial reviewer board of Management and Organization Review. Additionally, his work has received several awards: the OB Division’s Best Paper Award at the AOM Annual Meeting in 2020, the Best Reviewer Award from Management Quarterly in 2018, 2022, and 2023, as well as the RRBM Best Paper Award from Management and Organization Review in 2023.
All are welcome!