ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2019, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (4): 571-586.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2019.00571

• Conceptual Framework •     Next Articles

Pearls are everywhere but not the eyes: The mechanism and boundary conditions of the influences of decision maker's mental models on idea recognition

BAI Xinwen1(), QI Shuting1,2, MING Xiaodong1,2, ZHOU Yiyong1,2, HUANG Mingquan1,2   

  1. 1 CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2 Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2018-09-21 Online:2019-04-15 Published:2019-02-22
  • Contact: Xinwen BAI E-mail:baixw@psych.ac.cn

Abstract:

As one of the major limitations in organizational creativity and innovation research, much endeavor has been focused on idea generation rather than on idea recognition. Recognizing creative ideas among many options is the most crucial stage in the long process of organizational innovation, and contributes more to its success than generating ideas does. The critical role of decision maker’s mental model—the knowledge and belief structure that individuals use to describe, interpret, predict outside world, and to make judgment and decisions—on idea recognition has yet been examined. By adopting Csikszentmihalyi’s (1988, 1999) system view of creativity, the current study aims a) to demonstrate the difference in idea recognition accuracy between decision makers holding a fixed mindset or a growth mindset; b) to reveal the mediating effect of decision makers’ uncertainty tolerance decision makers; and c) to investigate the moderating effects of idea features and the pattern of organizational innovation practice. The current study contributes to organizational creativity and innovation literature by introducing a new perspective to this field. Also, decision makers can gain insight on how to avoid costly mistakes by reflecting on and modifying mental models of their own.

Key words: organizational creativity & innovation, decision makers, idea recognition, mental models, fixed/growth mindsets

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