Job structure, organizational structure, and creative performance in business firms engaged in creating new products.

摘要

This study examined whether job structure and organizational structure were related to creative performance in organizations engaged in inventing and creating new products.;Creative performance consisted of: (1) Creative quality. CEO ratings of success at inventing and creating new products, and (2) Product quantity. Number of inventions or creations per idea generator per year, weighted for long-term.;Organizational structure consisted of structuring of activities and concentration of authority. Job structure consisted of motivating potential as computed from five job dimensions.;Climate for creativity and innovation, and worker characteristics were statistically controlled. Size, company age, and dependency, as well as job satisfaction were statistically controlled as covariates of the independent variables.;Thirty-nine Saskatchewan companies designated as high-technology firms by the provincial government participated in the study. From these, each CEO and 117 idea generators responded. Idea generator were defined as employees expected to be currently inventing and creating.;Pearson correlation, partial correlation, multiple correlation, ANOVA, and ANCOVA were utilized.;Companies were small, young, and independent employing as idea generators mostly young, well educated, males.;Product quantity was significantly, negatively correlated with structuring of activities, and positively correlated with concentration of authority, even when size, company age, and dependency were controlled. Structuring of activities accounted for more of the variance than concentration of authority. Elements of creative organizations, idea-generator age, years of education, and creative ability covaried with product quantity, the last three negatively. Idea-generator age accounted for the most variance in product quantity, followed by structuring of activities. The ANOVA with product quantity and structuring of activities was significant. ANCOVA with idea-generator age and years of education as the covariates was also significant.;Job structure correlated significantly with structuring of activities. More variance in job structure was accounted for by job satisfaction than by structuring of activities; and more variance in structuring of activities was accounted for by size and dependency than by job structure.;Managers can expect that when product quantity is high, structuring of activities will be low, i.e., there will be few specialized functions and few role defining documents.