Innovation and restrictive conformity among hospital employees: individual outcomes and organizational considerations

Two factors characterize innovative organizational climates as perceived by nonmanagerial hospital employees. The first, innovation, comprises perceptions about the consequences or contingencies (e.g., punished, ignored, rewarded) of such proactive activities as implementing new ideas, questioning established methods, and communicating with other departments and the supervisor. The second, restrictive conformity, comprises perceptions about the consequences of risk-aversive, conflict-avoidant activities that suggest dysfunctional conformity (e.g., "sticking to the rules no matter what"). Positive personal outcomes--greater role clarity, organizational involvement, and satisfaction, and lower role conflict and willingness to leave the organization--are associated with innovation; negative personal outcomes are associated with restrictive conformity. The dialectical tension between conformity and innovation is discussed in terms of loose coupling and a reward systems perspective.