The Effect of Socializing via Computer-mediated Communication on the Relationship between Organizational Culture and Organizational Creativity

An organization’s culture plays a strong role in its creating new knowledge, but, as organizations become more dispersed and technologies more advanced, many come to rely on computer-mediated communication (CMC) for employees to engage in all levels of knowledge management. Researchers have conducted little work to understand the effectiveness of socializing via CMC on organizational creativity, particularly as it relates to organizational culture. Some organizations tend toward a group culture, while others lean toward a rational culture. We investigate how both face-to-face (FTF) and computer-mediated socializing influence the relationship between organizational culture and organizational creativity at each cultural extreme. We surveyed 186 knowledge workers to investigate these relationships. Organizational culture interacted with socializing such that creativity in rational cultures benefited from using CMC to socialize, while group cultures appeared to be agnostic to different socializing types.