Top Stories - Posted by Bob Roseth-UW on Friday, February 11, 2011 13:53 - 5 Comments 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Autonomy sparks on-the-job passion
Google, for instance, screens its hires for levels of passion and then provides employees a culture of autonomy—even mandating 20 percent of work time to be spent outside of projects—to further enhance the creativity that is the company's greatest asset. (Credit: iStockphoto)
U. WASHINGTON-SEATTLE (US) — The key to developing passionate and creative employees is giving them autonomy, a new study shows.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
“Context is very important,” says study co-author Xiao-Ping Chen, a professor of management and organization at the University of Washington. “Teams, units, and organizations that promote and support autonomous thinking and working will become more passionate. And, in turn, more creative.”
Researchers studied the behaviors and attitudes of employees at two very different types of organizations: a manufacturing company and a financial services firm. They measured degrees of “harmonious” passion, an intense commitment to work that is driven by internal rather than external motivation.
“Harmonious passion comes from intrinsic motivation,” explains study co-author and doctoral student Dong Liu. “You are passionate not only because you are interested in the work, but because it identifies part of you. It defines you.”
The research team found that harmonious passion facilitates increased workplace creativity—acts of devising new and improved ways of doing tasks, from an ergonomic shift on an assembly line to an innovative marketing campaign. The study is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Some people, Chen explains, are naturally predisposed to be passionate about their work. These people will exercise creativity whatever the environment. The rest, however, could develop harmonious passion if given a degree of autonomy to decide how they will execute their tasks—even when pressure to perform is external (think deadlines) rather than internal.
The authors say that some companies have a clear strategy of seeking and fostering passion. Google, for instance, screens its hires for levels of passion and then provides employees a culture of autonomy—even mandating 20 percent of work time to be spent outside of projects—to further enhance the creativity that is the company’s greatest asset.
“There are practices that any company can use to foster environments supportive of autonomy,” says Liu. “Things such as open communication, flexible work designs and supervisor empowerment.”
One final note that emerged from the study is that the connection between autonomy, passion, and creativity appears to be universal, existing among people of every cultural orientation.
“Passion is universal,” Chen says. “It’s important to creativity in individualistic cultures such as the United States. And it’s also important in more collectivistic cultures such as China.”
Xin Yao of the University of Colorado at Boulder collaborated on the research.
More news from the University of Washington: www.washington.edu/news/
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5 Comments
David Perlman
Marc Blasband
This is true for the type of people Google selects. What is best for the others?
David Perlman
I do not question that there are many people who respond to, enjoy, profit from, and are motivated by team building exercises. Of course, it is a matter of degree and I object to management that tries to force a one size fits all program. They must learn to properly manage the creative maverick. I’d like to also point out that the article isn’t about Google; as I read it, the authors believe that they have discovered a basic feature of human behavior and their study was conducted at two very different kinds of companies, as stated in the second paragraph.
I find it ironic that the gears in the sketch shown in the picture with this article can’t turn freely because they are interlocked.
Too many companies want people to be “productive” without taking responsibility for what is required to create and sustain the productivity in the first place. That’s when I feel like a gear that’s stuck.
teams, populated by passionate people are where its really at. a bunch of blaze people thrown together will still be blaze.
So teams aren’t the be all and end all they were supposed to be for the past twenty years!! Another fad bites the dust? I certainly hope so! I’ve often wondered out loud how it is that prizes are awarded and statues erected to individuals and not teams. In my own life, I’ve found that insubordination can pay handsome dividends. You take the risk and fail– you’re a bum. You take the risk and succeed– you’re a hero! The challenge is, of course, how to manage the brilliant maverick.
Next to fall? Hopefully mission statements and visioning along with excessively detailed strategic planning processes with their metastasizing committees, study groups, task forces, and proliferation of forms!