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The effect of extrinsic rewards on the creativity of organizational participants: An experimental analysis in a simulated business environment
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of extrinsic rewards on the creative behavior of subjects in an organizational setting. Creative behavior was measured by examining the quantity and rated creativity of suggestions submitted to a formal suggestion system. It was hypothesized that both the quantity of suggestions and the rated creativity of suggestions could be enhanced through the introduction of contingent extrinsic rewards. Quantity was measured as the number of suggestions submitted per organization, per two-day time period. Rated creativity was measured using a consensual assessment technique developed by Amabile (1983), in which three judges independently evaluated the overall creativity of each suggestion submitted. An experiment was conducted using four organizations. The organizations had been assembled for a year long business simulation. Each organization consisted of between 8 and 10 individuals. The experiment took place over a three month period and it employed a counterbalanced multiple baseline design in which each of the four organizations was exposed to a baseline condition and a series of experimental conditions. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the effect of three reward contingencies; rewards for quantity of suggestions, rewards for rated creativity of suggestions, and rewards for a combination of quantity and creativity of suggestions. When the data from all four companies was aggregated, the results indicated that the condition where rewards were made contingent on a combination of quantity and creativity of suggestions was the most effective condition in terms of both number of suggestions and rated creativity of suggestions. The condition in which rewards were made contingent on quantity of suggestions also resulted in an increase in both quantity and rated creativity of suggestions over baseline conditions. The condition in which rewards were made contingent on rated creativity only resulted in a decline in both the number of suggestions submitted and a decline in the rated creativity of suggestions relative to the baseline condition. Following the initial visual inspection of the experimental data, a one-way ANOVA was conducted to test for differences in mean scores across experimental conditions. The results of the ANOVA revealed a significant difference between means when quantity was the dependent variable. Further analysis indicated that the mean quantity of suggestions in the combined condition (rewards for a combination of quantity and rated creativity) was significantly greater than the mean quantity of suggestions in the baseline condition. When rated creativity was the dependent variable, the differences in mean creativity ratings across conditions was not found to be statistically significant.
Subject Area
Management
Recommended Citation
Marsnik, Paul Albert, "The effect of extrinsic rewards on the creativity of organizational participants: An experimental analysis in a simulated business environment" (1997). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9734627.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9734627