Creativity Recognition: Roles of Political Skills, Creativity Communication and Paradoxical Frame

Abstract

Supervisor recognition plays a pivotal role in fostering employee creativity. Although prior research has examined creativity recognition to some extent, a significant gap persists in understanding how this process is shaped by the cognitive traits and characteristics of both idea initiators and evaluators. Drawing on an overarching theory and three scholarly frameworks, this study proposes and empirically tests a research model that explores the interactive effects of employees' political skills and communication competencies, together with supervisors' paradoxical mindsets, on creativity recognition. Data were collected through an employee–supervisor dyadic survey across multiple industries. The findings indicate that, on the one hand, employees leverage their political skills to effectively articulate and advocate for both novelty and usefulness of their creative ideas. However, only elaboration on usefulness, not novelty, directly enhanced supervisors' recognition. On the other hand, supervisors' recognition of subordinates' creativity was not determined solely by employees' performance, but was also contingent upon supervisors' paradoxical mindset, particularly in the evaluation of novelty. This study advances the understanding of creativity recognition by emphasizing the combined effects of employees' political skills and communication competence alongside supervisors' evaluation dispositions. Furthermore, it opens avenues for future discussion of the role of cognitive ability and mindset proclivity in decision‐making, particularly within the domain of organizational creativity management.