The effects of territorial marking on creative feedback

Creativity in the workplace is very important. Recent research in the Journal of Applied Psychology entitled Protecting the Turf: The Effect of Territorial Marking on Others’ Creativity examined the effects of “territorial marking” on the creative process. Territorial marking refers to the process of “marking” things that you own, to ensure that others do not claim these things as their own.

The researchers focused on territorial marking of novel ideas. This would be equivalent to telling someone “this is my idea” before presenting the idea. This ensures that others know the idea is “owned” and no one else is to receive credit for it. The researchers were interested in how territorial marking of an idea would affect the feedback that colleagues provided.

The study revealed interesting findings. Listeners who were “independent self-construal” (those who see themselves as different from others and highlight those differences) were more likely to give less novel or creative feedback in response to ideas that were territorially marked. These types of listeners did so because they perceived a lack of control or responsibility over the eventual outcome of the idea. Therefore, they lacked motivation in improving the idea. In contrast, listeners were “interdependent self-construal” (those who see themselves as attached to others and highlight those commonalities) were more likely to give better creative feedback when an idea was territorially marked.

In terms of organizational implications, an environment that encourages territorial marking can be negative if the people at that organization are individualistic. However, for organizations that are collectivist, territorial marking can foster collaborative creativity.