Understanding the dynamics between supervisor‐follower social capital, work engagement, and employees' creative work involvement

• Date: 01 June 2018
• Author: Dave Bouckenooghe,Bulent Menguç
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1427
• Published date: 01 June 2018

Understanding the dynamics between supervisor-

follower social capital, work engagement, and

employees’creative work involvement

Dave Bouckenooghe*

Brock University

Bulent Menguç

Leeds University Business School

Abstract

This study examines the previously unexplored mediating

role of work engagement in the link between creative work

involvement and the relational resources embedded in

supervisor-follower exchanges. We studied three relational

resources inherent to the exchanges between followers and

their supervisors: trust in supervisor, goal congruence, and

relationship informality. Data were captured from IT profes-

sionals working at four well-established IT companies in

Ukraine. The f‌indings show that relationship informality

and goal congruence positively affect employees’creative

work involvement, yet these effects are less pronounced

when controlling for work engagement. The signif‌icance

and implications of these f‌indings for research and practice

are discussed. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John

Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: work engagement, trust in supervisor, relation-

ship informality, goal congruence, creative work

involvement

Résumé

Dans cette étude, nous examinons le rôle médiateur

autrefois inexploré de l’engagement professionnel dans le

rapport entre la participation au travail créatif et les

ressources relationnelles ancrées dans les échanges

superviseur-supervisé. Trois ressources relationnelles

inhérentes aux échanges entre les supervises et leurs

superviseurs sont ainsi étudiées à savoir: la conf‌iance au

superviseur, la convergence des objectifs et le caractère

informel de la relation. Les données utilisées proviennent

des professionnels des technologies de l’information (TI)

exerçant dans quatre compagnies bien établies en Ukraine.

Les résultats montrent que le caractère informel de la rela-

tion et la convergence des objectifs inf‌luencent positivement

la participation des employés au travail créatif, mais que

leurs effets sont moins prononcés quand on tient compte de

l’engagement professionnel. L’étude s’achève par une ana-

lyse de la signif‌ication et des implications théoriques et pra-

tiques des résultats.

Mots-clés : engagement professionnel, conf‌iance au

superviseur, caractère informel de la relation, convergence

des objectifs, participation au travail créatif

Of the forces that facilitate employee creativity, there is

a general belief among practitioners and scholars that both

psychological (i.e., positive psychological states) and con-

textual factors (i.e., social context) inf‌luence employee crea-

tivity (Amabile, 1998; Zhou & Shalley, 2003). Positive

psychological states such as positive affect, commitment,

and work engagement offer the motivation or positive en-

ergy to coordinate a person’s skills, knowledge, and actions

to engage in creative activities (Bakker & Xanthopoulou,

2013; Hakanen, Perhoniemi, & Toppinen-Tanner, 2008).

The recurring narrative is that employees who are engaged

by their work have a positive, fulf‌illing, work-related state

of mind and are likely to build high levels of energy for f‌lex-

ible cognitive thinking and creative problem solving

(Frederickson, 2001; Isen, Rosenzweig, & Young, 1991).

In contrast, when people experience burnout, they devote

their resources to attend to these negative feelings, leaving

fewer resources and less energy for challenging cognitive

tasks like creative thinking (Coelho, Augusto, & Lages,

2011).

According to Amabile’s (1988) seminal work, em-

ployees who have great creativity potential may or may

not produce creative ideas, because it is dependent on

whether or not the surrounding social context offers them a

supportive platform to exhibit their creativity. Researchers

have long been interested in the roles of social context and

motivation as antecedents of creativity; however, relatively

little is known about the complex dynamics between both

*Please address correspondence to: Dave Bouckenooghe, Goodman School

of Business, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, Brock University, St. Catharines,

Ontario. Email: davebouckenooghe1@gmail.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

35: 238–251 (2018)

Published online 1 December 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1427

Can J Adm Sci

35(2), 238–251 (2018)Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 238