Client\'s Work) Participants the Participants

¶ … CLIENT'S WORK)

Participants

The participants in this study will be one-hundred business employees from different firms. They will include lower-level employees as well as employees in positions of sufficient authority to set policy or to make personnel decisions with respect to the recruitment and hiring of new employees.

The study will consist of a survey using two different sets of questionnaires: the first questionnaire will be distributed to lower-level employees (i.e. those without policy-making or personnel decision-making authority); the second questionnaire will be distributed to higher-level personnel (i.e. those with policy-making and/or personnel decision-making authority). There will be three hypotheses, each consisting of one independent variable and one dependent variable. They are as follows:

Hypothesis #1 -- Firms that emphasize creativity will demonstrate higher profits and performance according to standard measures than firms that do not emphasize creativity.

Independent Variable -- Degree of Emphasis on Creativity

Dependent Variable -- Standard Profit and Performance Measures

Hypothesis #2 -- Firms whose employees' beliefs and attitudes about the degree to which creativity is valued by their firms closely match their firms' professed values in that regard will demonstrate higher profits and performance according to standard measures than firms whose employees' beliefs and attitudes about the degree to which creativity is valued by their firms do not closely match their firms' professed values in that regard.

Independent Variable -- Degree of Value Consistency

Dependent Variable -- Standard Profit and Performance Measures

Hypothesis #3 -- Firms that emphasize creativity will demonstrate higher employee satisfaction and retention levels than firms that do not emphasize creativity.

Independent Variable -- Degree of Emphasis on Creativity

Dependent Variable -- Employee Retention Levels

The specific purpose of including the second hypothesis is to increase the reliability of the data and minimize the potential limitation in connection with inaccurate perceptions on the part of organizational management. Without this hypothesis, the other two would be comparatively less useful, particularly in the event the two groups of participants expressed opposite beliefs about the degree to which creativity is valued by the organization. Additionally, Hypothesis #2 also provides data that is relevant to the efficiency of management and the concordance of perceptions between employees and management.

Instruments

The first instrument will be a questionnaire intended for distribution to lower level personnel without the authority to set policy or to make personnel decisions with respect to the recruitment and hiring of new employees. The second instrument will be a questionnaire intended for distribution to higher level personnel with the authority to set policy or to make personnel decisions with respect to the recruitment and hiring of new employees.

Sample Questions from Questionnaire #1

Do you consider yourself to be a creative person?

On a scale of 1-10, how much creative opportunity do you have at work?

On a scale of 1-10, how much would you like to have more opportunity for creativity at work?

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you think the organization values creativity?

Sample Questions from Questionnaire #2

Do you value creativity in your criteria for hiring employees?