Every Sherlock needs a Dr. Watson: A theory of creativity catalysts in organizations

Abstract

This research investigates when certain coworkers can serve as “catalysts” to enhance the creative performance of others. We draw on social capital theory and the ability-motivation framework to focus on the characteristics of potential catalysts and the facets of relationships between catalysts and creators. We hypothesized and found that the strength of the relationship between a catalyst and a creator has a positive association with the intensity of the catalyst's contribution to the creator's creative performance. In addition, this contribution is stronger if the catalyst himself/herself is creative, and counter to our hypothesis if the catalyst has access to the same contacts as the creator (i.e., high dyadic redundancy). Later, we turned our attention from the intensity of contribution between a catalyst and a creator to the total catalytic contribution that a creator receives from all their catalysts. We predicted and found an inverted U-shaped relationship, such that although it is beneficial to receive help from catalysts up to a certain point, receiving excessive levels of catalytic contributions can be detrimental to employees' creative performance. We discuss the implications of our findings and explore how our results indicate a meaningful although mostly overlooked phenomenon in creativity research.