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Creativity during threat to organizational survival: The influence of employee creativity on downsizing survival

Man presenting to his team sitting with laptops

Employee creativity refers to the generation of novel and useful ideas. There is considerable research showing that employee creativity is important for organizational survival. However, when organizations downsize, do you think that organizations retain their most creative workers? No. They don’t.

Over the course of three studies, we show that radically creative workers are likely to be downsized and incrementally creative workers are likely to be retained during downsizing. Our data suggest that managers of creative workers become rigid during times of turmoil and evaluate their most creative workers more harshly. A follow-up analysis also revealed that managers who have a preference for creativity seem to be more susceptible to the threat of downsizing and become more rigid than managers who do not have a preference for creativity.

This study has several implications for creative employees, their managers, and executives. First, we caution employees who wish to demonstrate very disruptive ideas to be mindful of organizational context, as demonstrating radical creativity may increase their chances of becoming downsized. Second, we recommend managers routinely and explicitly express their creativity expectations among their staff to ensure that there is no confusion in terms of what types of creativity are preferred, given the organizational context. Third, we offer practical insights for senior executives on how to manage the downsizing process. While there is a general rhetoric that radical creativity is important for future growth, our data suggests that downsizing can result in downsizing the most radically creative workers. As such, we recommend that, when making survivor selection decisions, senior executives also consider how they intend to utilize their staff to reposition themselves in a post-downsized world. Halinski, M., Boekhorst, J. A., Allen, D., & Good, J. R. L. (2023). Creativity During Threat to Organizational Survival: The Influence of Employee Creativity on Downsizing Survival Selection (external link, opens in new window) . Journal of Management.