Here's how companies can boost employee creativity

Washington D.C: It's time to take your business to the next level as a new study has revealed that companies can promote creativity in employees by encouraging them to network beyond their immediate business networks.

The study by management experts at Rice University, Australian National University (ANU), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Monash University in Clayton, Australia and the University of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia found that it was the 'non-redundant ties' that offered the greatest efficiency for employees to gather novel information.

Researcher Jing Zhou said that building two-step non-redundant ties was the most efficient way for obtaining non-redundant information and generating creative ideas while networking, and added that employees needed to proactively build network ties with such people.

In the study, sales representatives displayed creativity by developing new ways to promote company products, devising strategies to cross-sell products, identifying ways to connect with hard-to-access sales targets and developing ideas or strategies to enhance client sales.

The authors said the results have timely implications for management practice.

Zhou said that organisations might benefit from developmental efforts helping employees build the efficiency of their direct networks and guiding employees to establish non-redundant ties, because such networks were likely to result in indirect networks of high-reach efficiency that are conducive to creativity.

The study is published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.