Examining the factors influencing organizational creativity in professional sport organizations

Increasingly, globalization and the adoption of a market economy have made innovation fundamental for the success of organizations (Eklinder-Frick, Eriksson, & Hallén, 2014). Beyond market share, an innovative organization improves employee job satisfaction, employee self-efficacy and decreases turnover (Elskildsen & Dahlgaard, 2000; Valentine, Godkin, Fleischman, & Kidwell, 2011). However, professional sport organizations enhance or hinder creativity for many reasons. For example, teams operate essentially in an oligarchy (Wolfe, Wright & Smart, 2006). Additionally, professional sport industry tend to be isomorphic (O’Brien & Slack, 2004), hyper-traditional (Wolfe et al., 2006), or a hierarchical-type organization (Hartnell et al., 2011). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to determine the antecedents of organizational creativity in professional sport organizations. Perception of organizational creativity is theorized to be influenced by individual employee creativity, work environment, and the social interactions of employees. Amabile’s (1983) theory of individual creativity, West’s (1990) four factor theory of team climate, and social network analysis theory was used to build a model for organizational creativity. The results based on a survey for three professional sport organization’s front offices, indicated higher engagement in information searching and encoding processes was associated with higher levels of employee creativity. Perceptions of a work environment with a clear vision, supportive of innovation, task orientation, and participative safety, were associated with greater perceptions of organizational creativity. The lack of relationships between many of the factors theorized influencing employee creativity, as well as employee creativity and an individual’s social network, could indicate the sport industry is unique in creativity research. This study is the beginning in understanding the first step of innovation, and the processes that influence employees’ perceptions regarding the ways in which their work environment relate to organizational creativity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Smith, Natalie L.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Green, Christine
• Chalip, Laurence
• Tainsky, Scott
• Diesner, Jana

• sport management
• innovation
• organizational creativity
• professional sport
• competitive advantage
• social network analysis
• team climate
• employee creativity
• sport
• creativity

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Natalie Smith

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/95473

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/95473