Tight workplace norms fuel male creativity

By Christie Loh 

SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration – Strong rules, tight social norms, and rigid hierarchies may seem like a death knell for creativity, but a new study reveals that such environments may actually boost creative output – though mostly for men.

“Perceived organisational tightness – the extent to which one perceives that an organisation is characterised by strong norms and sanctions for deviation – increases clarity on creativity evaluation standards, and gender moderates this relationship such that the effect is stronger for men than for women,” according to the abstract in the research paper, “Through The Lens Of Clarity: Perceived Organizational Tightness Boosts Creativity For Men, But Not For Women”, which has been accepted for publication in the journal, Organization Science. 

The co-authors are Assistant Professor Grace J.H. Lim of Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Professor Roy Y.J. Chua.

They added: “Clarity on creativity evaluation standards subsequently enhances creative self-efficacy, which in turn boosts employee creativity.”

Strong supporting evidence

Findings from four investigations backed their theory: A two-wave online study, a two-wave multi-source field study and two online experiments.

The two-wave online study polled some 263 employees in the United States sourced by Prolific Academic, a technology platform for scientific research that connects researchers with participants. Each person rated items measuring the tightness of their organisation’s culture, their clarity on creativity evaluation standards and their creative self-efficacy. 

Results indicated that clarity on creativity evaluation standards was the mechanism underlying the effect of perceived organisational tightness on creative self-efficacy. The positive effect was found to be stronger for men than for women.

The paper pointed out that when the investigators included the alternative mechanisms of intrinsic motivation and general self-efficacy (defined as an individual’s belief in their ability to achieve goals) in the regression model, clarity on creativity evaluation standards still significantly and positively predicted creative self-efficacy.

Their second study, which took place in India, sought to establish the effect of perceived organisational tightness on supervisor-rated performance through clarity on creativity evaluation standards and creative self-efficacy. Some 256 employee-supervisor dyads were surveyed. The results of this field study in India, a country characterised by high cultural tightness, echoed those of the online study conducted in the United States, regarded as a culturally loose environment. Taken together, these two studies, conducted in different cultural contexts, highlight the generalisability of the findings

“Our study challenges the classic assumption that looser environments foster creativity,” Professor Chua, who is SMU’s Lee Kong Chian Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources, told the Office of Research Governance and Administration (ORGA) in an email interview. “Surprisingly, environments that enforce strict norms – often seen as creativity-killers – may paradoxically spark innovation, at least for some.”

Women under the shadow of uncertainty

Presenting a narrative along similar lines were the two online experiments. The studies involved participants imagining a scenario where they are sales executives at a large company and required to email their supervisor a specific business idea that would be evaluated for its creativity. Expert judges with real-life sales experience then scored each of the emailed ideas.

Both experiments showed that men in organisations perceived as culturally tight had significantly higher levels of creativity than men in the loose culture condition. This is because greater clarity of creativity evaluation standards boosts creative self-efficacy, ultimately leading to higher creativity, the authors said in their paper.

However, the effect on women is null, they said. The experiments revealed that women, regardless of whether they perceived their organisation as culturally tight or loose, did not differ in terms of creativity, or of clarity on creativity evaluation standards. 

One interpretation, the authors said, is that when norms are strict, even explicit evaluation criteria do not feel meaningfully clearer to women, given the misalignment between the agentic demands of creative work and conventional expectations of femininity. Social role theory states that women are traditionally seen as communal versus men being agentic; and creative output is regarded as within the man’s domain since creativity requires independence to generate ideas and to challenge the status quo. 

For a woman faced with creativity-related tasks, she would have to navigate the pervasive cultural stereotype that portrays creativity as imbuing masculinity. Hence, the research paper’s authors believe that perceived organisational tightness heightens women’s social uncertainty in the creative domain due to concerns over potential backlash and harsher sanctions for violating traditional female gender stereotypes. Organisational leaders need to be mindful that the organisational culture they create to foster creativity and innovation may not be experienced the same way by men and women employees,” said Professor Chua.

The paper suggests that organisations set clear evaluation standards, which might provide specific criteria that everyone, regardless of gender, can easily follow. This would offer a consistent framework, enabling both men and women to similarly enhance their creative self-efficacy. 

Some initiatives Professor Chua suggested are designing inclusive creativity assessment frameworks, training evaluators to recognise gendered biases in creativity judgments, and encouraging role models and mentors for women in creative roles.

The research paper was supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 2 grant to study organisational cultures in Asia and how they affect employee creativity.

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