Organizational design, knowledge scanning and employee creativity: a study from the attention allocation perspective

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationships between three characteristics of organizational design, i.e. centralization, formalization and connectedness, and both radical creativity and incremental creativity, particularly with respect to the possible mediating role played by knowledge scanning in this context. Design/methodology/approach Time-lagged data were collected from 414 dyads of employees and their immediate supervisors from 35 organizations. Multilevel analysis was used to test the proposed hypothesis. Findings The results revealed that centralization has a negative indirect effect on radical creativity via external scanning and a negative indirect effect on incremental creativity via internal scanning. In contrast, connectedness has a positive indirect effect on radical creativity via external scanning and a positive indirect effect on incremental creativity via internal scanning. In contrast to the expectations, the indirect effect of formalization on creativity is not significant. Originality/value The results of this research provide a novel theoretical perspective that can advance the understanding of the relationships between organizational design characteristics and creativity and clarify the potential mechanism underlying these complex relationships.