Assessing Malevolent Creativity in the Workplace
Presenter Type
UNO Graduate Student (Masters)
Major/Field of Study
Psychology
Other
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-8139-7075
Advisor Information
Dr.
Location
CEC RM #230
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
22-3-2024 1:00 PM
End Date
22-3-2024 2:15 PM
Abstract
The fundamental qualities of creativity, novelty and effectiveness, are generally viewed as inherently pro-social. However, creativity can be aimed towards malevolent goals as well. Malevolent creativity (MC), the generation of ideas or products that are both novel and harmful, is not limited to extreme cases (e.g., terrorists and criminals). The same phenomenon can be observed in our workplaces. This study focuses on individual differences in creative potential measured via divergent thinking and an unjust situational context as they relate to the generation of MC ideas. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between creative potential and MC ideation in a workplace context and how this relationship is influenced by the perceptions of organizational injustice. Moreover, we considered the role of counterproductive workplace behaviors (CWBs), another form of workplace deviance, and whether a propensity to engage in CWBs strengthens the relationship between creative potential and MC. 170 working adult participants recruited through Prolific participated in the survey study. Previous studies have used social revenge tasks in which participants are asked to “get back at” others for unfair treatment. However, we focus on unsolicited MC in response to complex, ill-defined problems represented in unfair, workplace-related vignettes. Participants were asked to engage in creative ideation, but not explicitly instructed to cause harm in response to the vignettes. The goal was to create a more realistic situation that may occur in actual workplaces rather than a hypothetical revenge task. Contrary to expectations, creative potential was not related to MC. Unlike the results of previous studies, perceptions of injustice were not related to MC either. Further, CWBs were unrelated to MC, suggesting other variables beyond creative ability alone differentiate between engagement in CWBs versus engagement in MC ideation. However, people who generated more ideas tended to have more malevolent ideas for one problem version. Interestingly, those who had faced a similar experience in real life were more likely to view the problems as unfair.
Assessing Malevolent Creativity in the Workplace
CEC RM #230
The fundamental qualities of creativity, novelty and effectiveness, are generally viewed as inherently pro-social. However, creativity can be aimed towards malevolent goals as well. Malevolent creativity (MC), the generation of ideas or products that are both novel and harmful, is not limited to extreme cases (e.g., terrorists and criminals). The same phenomenon can be observed in our workplaces. This study focuses on individual differences in creative potential measured via divergent thinking and an unjust situational context as they relate to the generation of MC ideas. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between creative potential and MC ideation in a workplace context and how this relationship is influenced by the perceptions of organizational injustice. Moreover, we considered the role of counterproductive workplace behaviors (CWBs), another form of workplace deviance, and whether a propensity to engage in CWBs strengthens the relationship between creative potential and MC. 170 working adult participants recruited through Prolific participated in the survey study. Previous studies have used social revenge tasks in which participants are asked to “get back at” others for unfair treatment. However, we focus on unsolicited MC in response to complex, ill-defined problems represented in unfair, workplace-related vignettes. Participants were asked to engage in creative ideation, but not explicitly instructed to cause harm in response to the vignettes. The goal was to create a more realistic situation that may occur in actual workplaces rather than a hypothetical revenge task. Contrary to expectations, creative potential was not related to MC. Unlike the results of previous studies, perceptions of injustice were not related to MC either. Further, CWBs were unrelated to MC, suggesting other variables beyond creative ability alone differentiate between engagement in CWBs versus engagement in MC ideation. However, people who generated more ideas tended to have more malevolent ideas for one problem version. Interestingly, those who had faced a similar experience in real life were more likely to view the problems as unfair.