How Psychological Resilience Influence employees’ Creativity:The Role of Psychological Safety and Creative Self-Efficacy

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2018, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1) : 118-124.

PDF(620 KB)
PDF(620 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2018, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1) : 118-124.

How Psychological Resilience Influence employees’ Creativity:The Role of Psychological Safety and Creative Self-Efficacy

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Abstract

Abstract In the current knowledge-based economy, innovation is essential for enterprises to survive and develop. The creative capability of knowledge workers is the fuel that drives a company's engine of innovation. Hence, organizational researchers have devoted great attention to seeking ways to foster the creativity of knowledge workers. To address this question, we built a mediated moderation model of knowledge workers’ creativity. Specifically, our study examined the interactive effects of psychological safety and creative self-efficacy on knowledge workers’ creativity. 380 employee questionnaires and 105 leadership questionnaires were distributed to the 15 companies located in Zhejiang Province, 370 employees (response rate was 96.1%) and 100 supervisors (response rate was 95.2%) returned the questionnaires. After screening out the problematic cases, the final sample consists of 350 employees and 90 supervisors. In the sample of employees, 48.3% were male; most of the participants ranged from 25-30 years old, most of the employees had been working less than 6 years, most of the participants had a?college?degree. To examine the distinctiveness of the study variables, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 17.0. We also employed a multiple regression analysis to test the mediated moderation model using SPSS 13.0. This study proposed and tested a moderated mediation model in which psychological resilience influences knowledge workers’ creativity, with psychological safety as a mediator and creative self-efficacy as a moderator. The results showed that 1) psychological resilience was positively related to psychological safety; 2) the employees’ perception of psychological safety mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and their own creativity; 3) creative self-efficacy moderated the relationship between psychological safety and knowledge workers’ creativity, that is, the higher the creative self-efficacy, the stronger the relationship; 4) creative self-efficacy moderated the mediated relationship through psychological safety, that is, the higher the creative self-efficacy, the stronger the mediated relationship. Our findings contribute to employee creativity literature. Most studies have focused on the prediction of situational factors for the employees’ creativity, which may have obscured some individual factors that can exactly explain why employees engage in creativity. And most studies of individuals of level creativity have been conducted from a single angle, which is not enough to stimulate knowledge workers’ creativity. Our study established a comprehensive model mediated by the perception of psychological safety in which psychological safety and the creative self-efficacy predicted the employees’ creativity. Therefore, our study provides a fresh window on the predictions of employee creativity in organizations. In terms of practical implications, firstly, managers of organizations should create a frustration situation consciously, which will significantly improve employees’ psychological resilience. Secondly, it’s necessary to cultivate an open cultural environment, in which will significantly enhance employees’ psychological safety. Further, our findings suggested that, creative self-efficacy is not only the drive of employees to realize creativity, but also adjust the individual cognition (psychological safety) and the relationship between the employees' creativity, thus it should be worth trying for managers to train employees’ creative self-efficacy.

Key words

knowledge Workers / Psychological Resilience / Psychological Safety / Creative Self-Efficacy / Creativity

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How Psychological Resilience Influence employees’ Creativity:The Role of Psychological Safety and Creative Self-Efficacy[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2018, 41(1): 118-124
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