The influence of daily conflict on perceptions of creativity: a longitudinal study

This paper theorizes that perceived creativity is a phenomenon largely affected by social interactions in the workplace, one of which is daily conflict events. We here examine the influences of each task, process, and relationship conflict experienced at work on perceived creativity. Using both quantitative and qualitative time-series data from the daily diaries of 228 employees of seven companies, we looked for both positive and negative relationships between conflict and perceptions of creativity. Multi-level models controlling for repeated measures and team membership reveal that daily conflict occurrences are significant same day and next day antecedents to perceived creativity - some positive, and some negative. The use of daily measures administered longitudinally allows us to pinpoint with greater specificity the nature of the conflict-perceived creativity relationship. Implications for theory and methods are discussed.