How teams respond to ideas can be just as important for creativity as generating them in the first place. The new study “Rewarded to Reject? Exploring Motivational Roots of Idea Rejection in Teams” by Matthias Felix Sinnemann, Matthias Michael Weiss, and Julia Backmann, recently published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, examines how different reward structures influence idea rejection and team creativity.

💡 Based on an experimental study with 80 teams and 290 participants, the study shows that both individual and team-based rewards increase idea rejection. In contrast, mixed rewards combining individual and team incentives lead to fewer rejected ideas and higher team creativity.

🔍 The findings highlight the role of reward structures in shaping team interactions during creative work. As idea rejection is associated with lower idea fluency, flexibility, and creativity, balancing individual and collective incentives can help teams preserve and develop promising ideas.

🔗 Read the full article here.