Anonymity and employee engagement in creativity: A field experiment with nurses and patient care services staff.

Background: Nurses and patient care services staff are promising sources of creative ideas for improving care delivery, but hierarchical barriers can hinder engagement in creativity.

Purpose: We examined engagement in creativity among nurses and patient care services staff, particularly the support staff (e.g., medical assistants, unit coordinators) who sit low in the professional hierarchy. We tested whether the opportunity to give creative input anonymously increased engagement.

Methodology/approach: An innovation contest at a hospital invited over 8,500 nurses, health professionals, and support staff to share improvement-oriented ideas. We conducted a field experiment, where a randomly assigned group of employees was told that idea submission would be anonymous, whereas another group was told that name and role would be attached to ideas. Engagement in creativity meant viewing the contest platform and submitting an idea.

Results: Support staff were less likely to view the platform and submit an idea compared to other roles. With the promise of anonymity, support staff became more likely to view the platform, but not to submit ideas.

Conclusion: Although innovation contests offer a structured process for soliciting creative ideas, simply implementing them may not result in widespread engagement, particularly among low-level employees. The promise of anonymity did increase interest in creativity among these employees, but it was not enough to motivate idea submission.

Practice implications: Managers will need to pay attention to employee' hierarchy-driven beliefs about engaging in creativity when implementing mechanisms that solicit employees' creative input. The promise of anonymity may not be an effective motivator for creativity.