We examine the organizational control of middle managers and its cross-level impact on employee creativity. Extending signaling theory, we develop a model that examines both the direct and moderating effect of manager-level input, behavior and outcome control on the employee-level creativity. Using three-wave, time-lagged data collected from a sample of 446 individuals in 103 teams working at 42 firms, we find that organizational managerial controls positively impacts employee creativity. Moreover, the curvilinear, top-down, cross-level HPWS effect on employee creativity is contingent on such organizational controls. Specifically, a non-rigorous set of input, behavior and outcome controls for managers makes the positive curvilinear effect of HPWS on employee creativity more important. Our findings demonstrate novel insights into the signaling effect of organizational managerial controls in promoting employee creativity.

cgrace2@ceibs.edu