Team Control Mode and Creativity of New Product Development Engineers

Creativity refers to a person’s thinking of new and useful ideas at work, and team control is the method managers use to coordinate members’ different opinions in making team decisions. Drawing on the information exchange theory, we propose that a worker who experiences the promotive mode of team control will increase information exchange with colleagues, which helps the person think of creative ideas. Conversely, a worker who experience restrictive control will reduce information exchange with colleagues, which hinders creativity. We further propose that personal fear of invalidity, a trait concerning an individual’s chronic worry about committing error, will moderate the effect of team control with creativity. In other words, experiencing promotive control can thwart creativity for persons high in fear of invalidity but experiencing restrictive control may stifle creativity only for persons low in fear of invalidity. Analysis of survey data collected from Taiwanese workers supports our hypotheses. Our s...