The Influence Of Social Capital On Graduate Students’ Creativity

Fostering student creativity has been widely regarded as a critical factor for developing an innovation-oriented country, technological advancement and social development. An increasing number of administrators and scholars have realized that the higher education system must do more to improve the ability to develop novel and potential useful ideas. Higher education administrative department and scholars focus on cultivate the innovation ability of graduate students. How to efficiently cultivating graduate students’innovation ability has already been an urgent affair facing higher education administrative department and scholars.As the medium for obtaining access to various resources for the boosting of creativity, social capital has played an important role in developing graduate students’ creativity in higher education. From the perspective of social capital, the current research aims to investigate the underlying mechanism by which social capital may affect graduate students’creativity. Drawing on componential theory of creativity, person-situation interactionist approach and social capital theory, In the context of graduate education in China, We aim to investigate how social capital, personal initiative and supervisor styles affect the development of student creativity. Studies involve, the role of different sources of social capital(peer social capital, advisor social capital and expert social capital) on the creativity of graduate students; the interactional effect of social capital sub-dimensions (structural dimension, relational dimension, cognitive dimension) and personal initiative; the moderating effect of supervisor’s leadership styles (supportive, controlling) on the above relationships. Based upon all these points, we construct a theoretical model.In order to comprehensively understand the mechanism by which social capital influence graduate student creativity, this study devotes to systematically and thoroughly analyze the above research questions. Further, the present study aims to contribute to the literature by attempting to empirically test the hypothesized relationships in a different national cultural context (e.g., China). We obtained many valuable findings. Our results indicated that:1) the different sources of social capital play different roles, both independently and interactively, in affecting student creativity. We found that social capital from peers, advisors, and experts helps graduate students accumulate knowledge and information and trigger original ideas generating and creative thinking, consequently boosting graduate students’creativity. We also compared the relative importance of the three sources of social capital for creativity. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the role of each source of social capital in enhancing the creativity of graduate students.Graduate students with both high peer social capital and high advisor social capital generally tend to exhibit greater creativity. It suggests that the high peer social capital of graduate students would adversely affect the relationship between expert social capital and creativity. The high power distance that characterizes Chinese culture may explain this finding. This cultural attribute might create a communication barrier, such that graduate students might feel enormous pressure and challenge when they communicate with external experts. Expert social capital typically stems from experts who come from other organizations. Most graduate students find difficulty in communicating with experts, especially through face-to-face discussions. Long-distance communication normally involves high cost and time requirements. In contrast, communicating with peers is easier and more convenient. Graduate students would be more inclined to discuss with peers when they have high peer social capital, which may limit the role of expert social capital in developing their creativity.2) the interactive effect between three dimensions of social capital and personal initiative on creativity manifest in different ways. The results suggest that, social network (structural dimension) is positively related to student creativity. In particular, the interactive effect of social network and personal initiative on creativity is not significant, the interactive effect of social trust (relational dimension) and personal initiative on creativity is negative, and the interactive effect of shard goal (cognitive dimension) and personal initiative on creativity is positive.It suggests that the dimensions of social capital have a different effect on creativity depending on personal initiative. By communicating with social network members, an individual could obtain valuable information regarding opportunities, which is important for developing innovative ideas. High personal initiative individuals who share a high level of goals can become more creative. Students who are low in personal initiative might rely more on their social trust that may enhance their creativity.3) We have shown in this study that the relationship between personal initiative and creativity has indeed been moderated by situational factors, supervisor style and social capital. The interaction of personal initiative and social capital influences creativity negatively. A possible explanation may be that, individuals with low personal initiative might depend on their social capital in order to access the resources and social support needed to generate creative outcomes. The finding indicates that individual with personal initiative and supportive supervisor generally tend to have greater creativity, whereas controlling supervisor weakens this influence. According to our findings, if a supervisor uses a supportive style, high personal initiative individuals who possess a high level of social capital can become more creative.Another finding worth noting is that individual with social capital responds better to the demands of creativity in the context of controlling supervisor style. A possible explanation for this unexpected finding is that Chinese students are willing to obey the authority of their controlling supervisors and behave obediently. Innovation tasks often take time and hard work. Thus, a controlling supervisor style might be effective at structuring creative tasks and ensuring that students accomplish them effectively and within the deadline. Besides showing fear and obedience to their supervisors, students had to finish the task on time. Hence, they would seek help from their surroundings, especially relying on their own social capital to complete innovation work.Finally, this study explores the mechanism of improving graduate students’ creativity, and provides implications for the macro-level policy-making by education departments, universities and institutes, and the practical strategies for supervisors and students. This study provides several paths. This finding implies that policymakers, including government officials and university administrators, should develop efficient and targeted policies to help graduate students develop their social capital. For instance, policymakers could establish a number of rules and mechanisms to ensure that graduate students frequently and efficiently communicate with their supervisors. Policymakers could also provide support for research workshops, seminars, and conferences as well as encourage students to attend and actively participate in these fora. The supervisor should encourage graduate students effectively and extensively communicate with their peers. Managers and organizations that want to foster creativity should select high personal initiative individuals. The supervisor should display a supportive style for students and he or she should encourage and reward student’s initiative. Other path to developing creative ability is to use controlling supervisor style or social capital, which is an effective instrument for students who have a low level of personal initiative.