Why Managers Reject Great Ideas

Innovation is critical to the success and longevity of organizations, and many managers encourage their employees to bring them fresh, creative ideas. But when they do, managers often dismiss or overlook them, and the ideas never see the light of day.

Two Smith researchers have found that the networks of both managers and employees play a significant role in moving new ideas forward. Dean’s Professor of Leadership and Innovation Vijaya Venkataramani and Professor Emerita Kathryn “Kay” M. Bartol are among the co-authors of the research, recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and featured in MIT’s Sloan Management Review. 

Groundbreaking ideas with the potential for extraordinary rewards often scare managers, say the researchers. 

“Though bosses claim they want to take on new ideas, they don’t want to take on the uncertainty that comes with them,” says Venkataramani.

There is a tendency to avoid the risk of failure and instead wait for the next big thing. “But they’ll probably reject that too,’’ says Bartol, “because they’re just accustomed to doing things a particular way and can’t see the value in changing it.”

The professors provide examples of such rejection: The first Star Wars movie got a thumbs down from United Artists because studio heads thought the concept was too odd. Kodak rejected the digital camera, and the first personal computer design was ignored by Xerox executives who didn’t think PCs would ever become popular.

One way to address supervisors’ inability to see the value of new concepts is for them to have diverse advice networks. Diversity increases managers’ openness and lets them see possibilities they might miss or ignore as infeasible. Those connections can occur within the company and include managers and employees in different departments. And that diversity can be accessed outside of the organization, too. The networks can be social as well as professional.

“Leaders can belong to associations and go to industry meetings,” Bartol says. “This is something managers need to do while recognizing their aversion to new ideas and making sure they’re exposed to broader things.”

Having more interactions with people in different areas of expertise helps a manager become more open-minded, says Venkataramani. 

“So when an employee comes to them with an idea, the manager can see how it might work because they are able to appreciate different ways of approaching the same problem,” she says.

But, when it comes to the network of the employee with the novel idea, things operate slightly differently in how managers might react.

“The employee’s network ties can act as a prism for the manager—they provide signals about the credibility of the idea,” says Venkataramani. A new idea will be taken more seriously when it comes from an employee with a diverse network within the company, so the boss needs to see an employee’s cross-functional connections, she says. “For example, a marketing specialist talking to people in research and development, and advising staff that work in supply chain or logistics.”

Companies cannot survive without innovation, so creating an environment free of bias against novel ideas is essential. The research demonstrates how important it is that senior leaders provide support—such as resources and opportunities like research days and brown bag lunches—to help managers and employees build and diversify their networks. Building these connections takes time, say Bartol and Venkataramani, but it’s well worth it.