Social Influence, Selection, and the Creativity Paradox in Intraorganizational Social Networks

Although many scholars believe that creative employees enhance the creativity of their peers, studies have returned equivocal results. Drawing from normative conformity and cognitive fixation theories, we challenge the conventional top-down perspective of creative influence. Instead, we propose that in dynamic social systems, social ties serve as channels for both positive, neutral, and negative influences on creativity. Recognizing that employees are often connected with colleagues of diverse creative capacities, we predict that employees' creativity converge toward the average level of their workplace ties. Additionally, we draw on self-verification and social comparison theories to contend that employees prefer forming ties with colleagues of similar creativity levels, even if it prevents them from realizing their full creative potential. We test and find support for our theory in a three-year longitudinal field study conducted at an award-winning Italian architecture studio. Our research sheds light on a novel coevolutionary perspective and highlights a critical paradox: while influence pressures suggest that forming ties with more creative peers can potentially boost one's creativity, employees' selection preferences often lead them to overpopulate their networks with colleagues of similar creative acumen, contributing to the formation of relational echo chambers that effectively "trap" employees in their existing levels of creativity.