Workplace bullying and negative behaviour such as being excluded, humiliated or treated unfairly hinders creative thinking and reduces the likelihood of employees engaging in innovative side projects, a study by Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow has found.

In many organisations, employees work on secret, self-initiated ideas developed without management's knowledge and present them to the management once they are ready to deliver significant results leading to business success, it said.

According to officials, the researchers employed a mixed-method approach to gather the necessary data.