Social networks, personal values, and creativity: Evidence for curvilinear and interaction effects.

Employers' conformity value moderated the curvilinear relationship between number of weak ties and creativity such that employees exhibited greater creativity at intermediate levels of number of strong ties when conformity was low than when it was high.

Abstract

Taking an interactional perspective on creativity, the authors examined the influence of social networks and conformity value on employees' creativity. They theorized and found a curvilinear relationship between number of weak ties and creativity such that employees exhibited greater creativity when their number of weak ties was at intermediate levels rather than at lower or higher levels. In addition, employees' conformity value moderated the curvilinear relationship between number of weak ties and creativity such that employees exhibited greater creativity at intermediate levels of number of weak ties when conformity was low than when it was high. A proper match between personal values and network ties is critical for understanding creativity.