{"id":1150,"date":"2022-02-24T10:12:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T09:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2026-01-06T09:22:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:22:54","slug":"clashing-work-roles-lead-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/en\/resource-center\/management-society\/clashing-work-roles-lead-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Clashing work roles may actually lead to creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Based on an interview with Felipe A. Guzman (I\u00c9SEG<\/a>) and on his article \u201cWhen discordant work selves yield workplace creativity: The roles of creative process engagement and relational identification with the supervisor\u201d (Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology<\/em>, 2021), co-written with Eren Akkan, of EMLV Paris.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many employees have multiple roles at work, which impose different goals. When employees experience a tension between their workplace roles, past researchers have seen a recipe for trouble: personal stress and lowered job performance. Yet new research shows that work-role identity conflict may actually breed creative solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a graduate student, Felipe Guzman<\/a> took it as a given that his projected career as a university professor \u2013 with roles as both a teacher and researcher may have some conflicting objectives. For example, the more time you dedicated to one of these missions, the less time you would have for the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he actually began exercising those roles, however, he found that the situation was not so clear cut, and decided to research the subject formally with his colleague Eren Akkan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conflicting values in workplace roles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Previous research had, for example, explored how tourism-industry employees, such as front-desk agents, may be asked to both help clients who need assistance and also promote hotel services that generate income for the establishment. Tension could result from the potential conflict between helping clients and profiting from them. Similarly, another study examined the conflict that production operators may experience when they are asked to assure both the high quality and high quantity of products manufactured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past studies had shown negative repercussions for people who experienced conflict, such as lowered feelings of self-esteem, well-being and authenticity, and higher stress levels. Other studies showed that this conflict adversely affected employees\u2019 job performance and decision-making ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akkan and Guzman, however, found surprising upsides to work-role identity conflict. Their study also provided insights into the conditions necessary for arriving at creative solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solutions that benefit both the employee and company<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen people face conflicts between roles they have at the workplace, it starts a process of thinking about the conflict,\u201d Guzman said. \u201cConflict makes us uncomfortable and with conflict, we want to come up with solutions.\u201d In other words, conflict stimulates creativity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Akkan and Guzman\u2019s research focused on three small and medium-sized enterprises. The coauthors polled employees about work-role conflict and other aspects of their lives and jobs, as well as asking employees\u2019 direct supervisors about each employee\u2019s creative problem solving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the researchers found that conflict impacts creativity. However, their results suggest two necessary conditions that drive workplace creativity. The first is that the work-role conflict must trigger a dedicated engagement in resolving the conflict. For that to happen, workers must deeply identify with both roles \u2014 if one role is seen as important and the other much less so, the demands of the second could easily be dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second condition is identification with the supervisor, who is the most proximal company representative. When employees are not aligned with their manager, the solutions generated take only employees\u2019 personal situation into account. There is no benefit for the company. However, when employees resolve conflicts with their manager\u2019s\/company\u2019s goals in mind, innovative solutions that benefit the entire company can result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How companies can increase employee identification with managers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Considering how important the role of the manager-employee relationship is, Guzman offered the following suggestions for fostering it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n