Breaking Ties and Bringing in Time: Shedding New Light on Social Networks and Creativity

While the past several decades of research have greatly informed our understanding of how to enhance employee creativity, as well as the impacts of social networks at work, much remains to be known about their relationship. This symposium looks to expand on the scholarship investigating the intersection between creativity and social networks through presentations that aim to resolve currently equivocal relationships between key social network structures and creativity, and presentations that introduce new ways to consider time in the study of creativity and social networks. Together these presentations seek to advance the current academic dialogue regarding the best way organizations and employees can seek to build and leverage their social networks over time to enhance employee creativity that can lead to organizational innovation, and to spark future research in this area. Network Heterogeneity and Creativity: The Importance of Tie Strength and Intrinsic Motivation Presenter: Travis Grosser; U. of Connecticut How Network Activation Affects Creative Idea Generation and Elaboration Presenter: Pier Vittorio Mannucci; London Business School Presenter: Jill Perry-Smith; Emory U. Structural Holes, New Ties, and Individual Creativity Presenter: Giuseppe Soda; Bocconi U. Presenter: Pier Vittorio Mannucci; London Business School The Evolution of Creative Employees Networks over Time Presenter: Gamze Koseoglu; U. of Melbourne Presenter: Christina Shalley; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Amy Breidenthal; Georgia Institute of Technology