Riding two Horses at Once: The Combined Roles of Mastery and Performance Climates in Implementing Creative Ideas

• Date: 01 June 2019
• Published date: 01 June 2019
• Author: Miha Škerlavaj,Matej Černe,Chunke Su,Anders Dysvik,Christina G.L. Nerstad
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12151

Riding two Horses at Once: The Combined

Roles of Mastery and Performance Climates in

Implementing Creative Ideas

MIHA ŠKERLAVAJ,

1

MATEJ ČERNE,

2

ANDERS DYSVIK,

1

CHRISTINA G.L. NERSTAD

3

and CHUNKE SU

4

1

BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway

2

Faculty of Economics,University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

3

Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway

4

Department of Communication, University of Texas Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA

Not all creative ideas end up being implemented. Drawing on micro-innovation literature and achievement goal

theory, we propose that the interplay of two types of work motivational climates (mastery and performance)

moderates a curvilinear relationship between the frequency of idea-generation and idea-implementation behavior.

Field studies in two non-Western countries (China, with a study of 117 employees nested within 21 groups, and

Slovenia,with a study of 240 employees nestedwithin 34 groups) revealed a three-wayinteraction of idea generation,

performance climate, and mastery climateas joint predictors of idea implementation. Specifically, results of random

coefficient modeling show that when combined, mastery and performance climates transform the relationship

between thefrequency of idea generationand idea implementation froman inverse U-shaped curvilinear relationship

to a positiveand more linear one.These findings suggest thatideas are most frequentlyimplemented in organizational

contexts characterized by both high-mastery and high-performance climates. Implications for research and practice

are discussed.

Keywords: creativity; innovation; idea generation; idea implementation; mastery climate; performance climate

Opposition is the source of all growth. –Lao Tzu

Introduction

Innovation is a crucialfactor for organizational success in

today’s competitive and dynamic environment (Crossan

and Apaydin 2010). Research has demonstrated the

importance of innovation for essential organizational

outcomes, such as performance, sustainability, and

growth over time (Damanpour and Evan 1984; Freel and

Robson 2004). It is also well established in the literature

that organizational innovation is influenced by the micro

or individual-level innovation process that consists of

the generation of novel and useful ideas (i.e., creativity)

(Amabile, 1983; Shalley, 1991) as well as their

implementation (Amabile 1988; Scott and Bruce 1994;

Axtell et al. 2006; Perry-Smith and Mannucci 2017).

Nevertheless, not all creative ideas get implemented.

While the link between idea generation and

implementation behaviors is an important one, it is also

fairly understudied –in fact, the vast majority of micro-

innovation research in organizations focuses only on

creativity (Anderson et al. 2014). However, ideas are

useless unless used, and it is the implementation of

creative ideas that holds business value (Levitt 2002).

Previous research (Baer 2012; Škerlavaj et al. 2014) has

observed that not all creative behavior gets implemented;

in fact, a too-much-of-a-good-thing effect related to

creative idea generation behavior and implementation is

in play. In otherwords, generating too noveland too many

creative ideas may ultimately lead to fewer ideas actually

being implemented.

Departing from the achievement goal theory (AGT)

(Nicholls, 1979; Ames, 1992a), this study seeks to

examine whether the perceived motivational climate at

work moderates the curvilinear relationship between

Correspondence: Matej Černe, Faculty of Economics University of

Ljubljana, Department of Management and Organisation, Kardeljeva

ploščad 17, Ljubljana, 1000, Slovenia, Tel: (+386) 15892-467. E-mail

matej.cerne@ef.uni-lj.si

European Management Review, Vol. 16, 285–302, (2019)

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12151

©2017 European Academy of Management

creative idea generation and implementation. According

to AGT, the perceived motivational climate is defined as

employees’shared perceptions of the existent criteria of

success and failure emphasized through the policies,

practices, and procedures of the work environment

(Nerstad et al. 2013). Since idea work is a core business

process (Carlsen et al. 2012) in many of today’s

organizations, succeeding or failing in the realization of

ideas is essential. We suggest that the perceived

motivational climate may be relevant for understanding

why idea implementation in certain circumstances may

succeed or fail.

In line with AGT, such a climate shapes the meanings

employees attach to success and failure, the performance

information they take in, their action strategies and

respectiveachievement behavior in the innovationprocess

(cf., Ames and Ames 1984). This means that the climate

focuses their attention on what it takes to be successful

at work (Nerstadet al. 2013), which in turn may be crucial

for their likelihood of creative idea implementation.

Two dimensions, whi ch desire, emphasiz e and reward

different goals and behaviors characterize the perceived

motivational climate in line with AGT: a mastery climate

and a performance climate. In a mastery climate, the

goal structure upholds and rewards behaviors such as

effort, self-improvement, progress, skill development,

and cooperation (Nicholls, 1984, 1979; Ames 1992a,

1992b). In contrast, a performance climate emphasizes

normative comparisons, goal attainment relative to that

of others, desire to demonstrate individual abilities, and

internal rivalry (Ames 1984, 1992a; Ames and Ames

1984; Dragoni 2005).

Intuitively, it seems logical that a mastery climate

is conducive to more effective innovative behaviors.

However, there are theoretical and practical reasons

to examine mastery and performance climates in

combination. AGT proposes that a mastery climate and a

performance climate can be simultaneously present and

interact as predictors of individual outcomes (Ames

1992a, 1992b; Ommundsen and Roberts 1999). In

addition and from a practical perspective, many areas in

life, including work, sports, and education are governed

by competition and normative evaluation (e.g., DeShon

and Gillespie 2005; Van Yperen et al. 2011). Therefore,

solely focusing on a mastery climate might conflict with

practical organizational realities (e.g., Poortvliet and

Darnon 2010). Organizations are often more concerned

with high performance and results than with the process

(e.g., employee learning, mastery, growth) that facilitates

and leads to it (e.g., DeShon and Gillespie 2005;

Poortvliet and Darnon 2010). Our main intended

theoretical contribution to AGT is therefore to increase

our knowledge about how mastery and performance

climates may jointly interact and thereby influence the

relationshipbetween idea generation and implementation.

The importance of management shaping perceptions of

climate that stimulates work involvement and innovation

has been widely emphasized in existing scholarship

(e.g., Wang et al.2010;Zhouet al. 2013). This study

seeks to contribute to the practice of innovation

management by explaining how idea generation leads to

idea implementation and how organizational systems

influence this relationship. An overwhelming belief of

scholars and practitioners has focused on how to

encourage employees to become and stay innovative in

the workplace. However, a less prevailing belief –yet

profoundly important reality –is that creative ideas need

to be implemented in order to have a business value. We

therefore contribute to the existing body of knowledge

by extending the primary focus on creativity (e.g.,

Binyamin and Carmeli 2010; Carmeli et al. 2013) to

the implementation of ideas situated in a multi-level

pattern of motivational climates at work. As cross-level

influences are likelyto be present in the workplace setting

since understanding the factors that can facilitate or stifle

creative or innovative behavior are embedded in a

complex social system (Shalley and Zhou, 2008), we

employ a multilevel approach. We test the interplay

among idea generation behavior, mastery climate, and

performance climate in predicting idea implementation

behavior on working professionals in China and in

Slovenia.

The two samples serve as an attempt to replicate the

results of the three-way interactions on two different

samples from employees in two different countries. The

respondents from the two samples are non-Western,

which in itself responds to the fact that there is a paucity

of research on creativity and innovation in non-Western

contexts (Erez and Nouri 2010; Zhou and Su 2010).

Idea generation and implementation

Idea generation (frequently labelled as creativity) is

defined as the invention of novel and useful ideas

(Amabile et al. 1996). Therefore, the end product of this

phenomenon is ideas. Idea generation is a necessary yet

insufficient antecedent to innovation, which also includes

the implementation of creativeideas (Amabile 1988; Scott

and Bruce 1994). Inevitably, conceptual overlap exists in

the two definitions, as innovation scholars frequently

examine innovation as a term encompassing both idea

generation and implementation, as well as idea

championing or issue selling (de Jong and den Hartog

2010; Anderson et al. 2014). To explain the nature of

the relationship between idea generation and idea

implementation ,w e draw on micro-innovation theory that

has thus far provided important insights into the problem

of balancing an exploration mindset with exploitation

(cf. Miron-Spektor et al. 2011).

286 M. Škerlavaj et al.

©2017 European Academy of Management