Social Networks, Personal Values, and Creativity:Evidence for Curvilinear and Interaction Effects

摘要

Taking an interactional perspective on creativity, the authors examined the influence of social networksand conformity value on employees' creativity. They theorized and found a curvilinear relationshipbetween number of weak ties and creativity such that employees exhibited greater creativity when theirnumber of weak ties was at intermediate levels rather than at lower or higher levels. In addition,employees' conformity value moderated the curvilinear relationship between number of weak ties andcreativity such that employees exhibited greater creativity at intermediate levels of number of weak tieswhen conformity was low than when it was high. A proper match between personal values and networkties is critical for understanding creativity.