Young professionals in a corporate environment: how control affects their creativity and motivation

The present study investigates young professionals' perceptions of the balance between control and creativity in the workplace. The study focuses on the relationship between control and creativity for young professionals. At the same time, the study explores how different management approaches influence creativity, motivation and innovation potential in young employees. One of the leading concerns with deeper digitalisation is increased control over work processes. Therefore, the opinion of young professionals who start and develop their professional experience in a highly digital environment is critical, especially regarding creativity, as they are the natural carriers of innovative thinking. The survey (n=257) results reveal a deep tension between control and creativity in the modern workplace. Most young professionals feel that control dominates their organisations – bureaucracy, hierarchy, lack of trust and limited access to real implementation of ideas. Only a small proportion – around 15-25% – feel they have the freedom and support to create entirely. According to young professionals, the main obstacles to creativity are strict control and bureaucracy (in the first place), followed by insufficient trust from management, lack of implementation of ideas, expectations for performance, lack of initiative, exhaustion and lack of communication within the team. At the same time, factors that most strongly stimulate creativity are freedom of action and the opportunity to experiment; a supportive, open environment to ideas; challenging tasks and flexibility in work; participation in team and cross-functional collaboration.