Article Summary: Indirect Networks and Employee Creativity

Student Name Professor Name Course Date Article Summaries In “Heard It Through the Grapevine: Indirect Networks and Employee Creativity,” Giles Hirst, Daan Van Knippenberg, Jing Zhou and Eric Quintane talk about the impacts of social networks on a person’s life. They state that there are two types of networks: direct and indirect. The direct network consists of people we meet on a daily basis such as our family, friends, co-workers, and others. The indirect network comprises of non-human resources such as the internet, books, journals, and others. Unlike the direct network, the indirect network enhances a person’s creativity because it allows him to access multiple resources at a time. For instance, we use social media to get in touch with clients and to expand our business, and the internet is used to increase sales and earn huge profits or to access e-books and online journals. All these are part of the indirect network and tend to boost our performance. When we use these resources on a daily basis, we are likely to learn a lot of new things, which eventually help us succeed (Zhou, Girst, Knippenberg, Quintane, & Zhu 2018). Previous social network research was limited to a couple of indirect networks and could not provide us with sufficient data regarding how these networks impact our lives. Today, a lot of studies indicate that indirect networks help us polish our communication and interpersonal skills and develop creativity. In other words, we can say that indirect networks are directly linked to higher individual creativity. Employee creativity is a sophisticated process that involves the development of new practices and innovative ways to sell products and services. If an employee is restricted to direct networks and kept from the indirect network, he is likely to lose his interest in the job (Zhou, Girst, Knippenberg, Quintane, & Zhu 2018). In “Morning Employees are Perceived as Better Employees: Employees' Start Times Influence Supervisor Performance Ratings,...