Rejection, Reward Type, and Employee Creativity: When Chocolate Is Better than Cash

47 Pages Posted: 18 Aug 2017 Last revised: 15 Apr 2020

See all articles by Eddy Cardinaels

Eddy Cardinaels

Tilburg University - Tilburg University School of Economics and Management; KU Leuven

Bart Dierynck

Tilburg University

Wenqian Hu

University of Waterloo

Date Written: April 14, 2020

Abstract

Although creative ideas frequently meet with rejection in many organizations, the consequences of such rejection on future creative performance remain largely unexamined. Using an experiment, we examine whether the effect on future creative performance arising from the rejection of creative ideas depends on the type of rewards employees subsequently receive. We find that the rejection of creative ideas leads to lower future creative performance compared with the acceptance of creative ideas. We further find that the effect of rejection manifests only when cash rewards are used to motivate future creativity, but not when tangible rewards are used. Our results are consistent with theories in behavioral economics on the differential sensitivity to probability assessment for monetary versus nonmonetary outcomes. Our study extends the literature on creativity by investigating the role of rejection on innovation and highlighting the potential benefits of using tangible rewards to motivate rejected employees.

Keywords: Rejections, Creativity, Incentives, Reward Type, Intrinsic Motivation

JEL Classification: M40, M41, M52

Suggested Citation

Cardinaels, Eddy and Dierynck, Bart and Hu, Wenqian, Rejection, Reward Type, and Employee Creativity: When Chocolate Is Better than Cash (April 14, 2020). Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business Research Paper No. 17-32, AAA 2018 Management Accounting Section (MAS) Meeting, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3022001 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3022001

Eddy Cardinaels

Tilburg University - Tilburg University School of Economics and Management ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Warandelaan 2
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands
+31 134668231 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/webwijs/show/?uid=e.cardinaels

KU Leuven ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium
+32 16326984 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.kuleuven.be/wieiswie/nl/person/00013472

Bart Dierynck (Contact Author)

Tilburg University ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, DC Noord-Brabant 5000 LE
Netherlands

Wenqian Hu

University of Waterloo ( email )

200 University Ave W, Waterloo,
Waterloo, N2L 3G1
Canada

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