Be creative as proactive? The impact of creative self-efficacy on employee creativity: A proactive perspective

Creative Self-Efficacy, Cognitive Reappraisal, Positive Affect, and Career Satisfaction: A Serial Mediation Model

With a substantial body of research supporting the critical role of positive affect in improving work outcomes and enhancing career success, investigating the factors that facilitate emotion regulation strategies for fostering positive affect becomes an important research question. In this context, our study explores the association between strong creative self-efficacy and high cognitive reappraisal-an established and potent emotion regulation strategy known to increase positive affect. We propose a model wherein high levels of creative self-efficacy lead to a tendency for cognitive reappraisal, resulting in high levels of positive affect that ultimately contribute to greater career satisfaction. Our investigation, conducted with a sample of 550 adults in South Korea, examines the indirect relationship between creative self-efficacy and career satisfaction through cognitive reappraisal and, in turn, positive affect. Our findings reveal a positive association between creative self-efficacy and cognitive reappraisal. Moreover, a significant relationship is observed between creative self-efficacy and positive affect through the mediation of cognitive reappraisal. Importantly, the indirect effect of creative self-efficacy on career satisfaction is mediated through cognitive reappraisal and then positive affect. These findings not only expand our insight into the factors contributing to positive affect and career satisfaction but also underscore the valuable role of creative self-efficacy in career satisfaction.

Exploring Role of Personal Sense of Power in Facilitation of Employee Creativity: A Dual Mediation Model Based on the Derivative View of Self-Determination Theory

Purpose

Employee creativity is a key factor that helps organizations to gain competitive advantages. The aim of this study is to add to the knowledge of the antecedents of employee creativity. Based on the derivative view of self-determination theory, we analyzed how personal sense of power affects employee creativity, and the mediating role of affective commitment and creative self-efficacy.

Participants and Methods

The participants in this study were 227 on-the-job MBA students (120 males and 107 females, mean age was 32.256 years, age range was between 24 and 52 years) at a university in southwestern China. To collect data, a three-wave survey was conducted. Participants were asked to report: personal sense of power, demographic variables, and zhongyong at Time 1; affective commitment and creative self-efficacy at Time 2; creativity at Time 3. PROCESS was employed to test the hypotheses.

Results

Personal sense of power has a significant and positive impact on creativity (b = 0.333, SE = 0.052, p < 0.01). Both affective commitment (b = 0.058, 95% CI [0.024, 0.107]) and creative self-efficacy (b = 0.139, 95% CI [0.078, 0.224]) mediate the relationship between personal sense of power and creativity.

Conclusion

Personal sense of power was positively correlated with employee creativity while affective commitment and creative self-efficacy mediated their relationship.

Leaders can facilitate creativity: the moderating roles of leader dialectical thinking and LMX on employee creative self-efficacy and creativity

Purpose

Research has shown that creative self-efficacy is an important antecedent of workplace creativity, but recent research indicates that this relationship may be moderated by contextual factors. The current study investigates whether leader dialectical thinking and leader member exchange moderate the relationship between employee creative self-efficacy and employee creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey sample of 222 employees in 43 teams from Chinese high-tech companies was collected and HLM was used to test our research model.

Findings

The positive association between employee creative self-efficacy and employee creativity was strengthened when a leader displayed a dialectical thinking style. Additional analyses failed to find support for the moderating role of leader-member exchange (LMX).

Research limitations/implications

These findings establish leadership cognitive style as a potential boundary condition of the relationship between creative self-efficacy and employee creativity.

Practical implications

Companies can make an active effort in recruiting and training leaders who have a dialectical mindset as they can play significant roles in facilitating employee creativity.

Social implications

Technological advancement and innovation is important for social welfare. This paper helps to improve the efficiency of creativity processes and finally benefits the whole society.

Originality/value

This is the first introduction of the leader's dialectical thinking as a moderator of the relationship between creative self-efficacy and creativity.