The mixed effects of inconsistency on experimentation in organizations

This paper examines how the inconsistency of organizational conditions affects people's willingness to engage in experimentation, a behavior integral to innovation. Because failures are inevitable in the experimentation process, we argue that conditions giving rise to psychological safety reduce fear of failure and promote experimentation. Based on this reasoning, we suggest that inconsistent organizational conditions – when some support experimentation and others do not – inhibit experimentation behaviors. An exploratory study in the field, followed by a laboratory experiment, found that individuals under high evaluative pressure were less likely to experiment when normative values and instrumental rewards were inconsistent in supporting experimentation. In contrast, individuals under low evaluative pressure responded to inconsistent conditions with increased experimentation. Our results suggest that evaluative pressure fundamentally alters an individual's experience of and response to uncertainty and that understanding experimentation behavior requires examining effects of multiple organizational conditions in combination.