Managers who fail to recognize their subordinates' creative ideas lose their trust

What is it about?

Organizations often say they want creative ideas, but the people who decide which ideas go forward often fail to spot a creative idea and turn it down. We asked what happens to the relationship between a manager and the person who came up with the idea, and with colleagues who saw the decision, when this happens. In two experiments, people trusted a manager less after the manager called a creative idea uncreative, mainly because they saw that manager as less competent. This held whether we measured an idea's creativity by making it more or less creative ourselves, by asking participants how creative they thought it was, or by having independent judges rate it. The reverse was also partly true. When a manager recognized a creative idea, people trusted them more and saw them as more competent, but this showed up reliably only when people themselves believed the idea was creative. In that case, they also saw the manager as warmer.

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Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We know that it is important to organizations that their managers are capable of recognizing creative ideas because they can bring about innovations, competitive advantage, and profit. In this paper we found another reason for organizations to ensure that their managers recognize creative ideas when they come along. Failing to do so erodes trust in the manager. Trust is important for effective team functioning. Avoiding situations in which trust is eroded is thus important.