Do Tight Deadlines and Dirty Diapers Fuel or Fizzle the Next Big Thing? The Differential Effect of Work and Non-Work Stressors on Employee Creativity

• Main Author: Trout, Rachel
• Other Authors: Hicks, Jason
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2014
• Subjects: Psychology
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11042014-210128/

As our society has transitioned from an economy built on production to one built on knowledge, employee creativity has become necessary for organizations seeking to gain and maintain profits. Therefore, the focus of this dissertation was to investigate how an employees social environment, specifically stressors from their work and non-work roles, impacts their ability to generate new ideas at work. Two independent studies were conducted. Within Study 1, the challenge-hindrance framework was integrated with the componential model of creativity (Amabile, 1983) to determine how individual factors interacted with work and non-work stressors. Although main effects were present, moderation was not found. Intrinsic motivation was found to partially mediate the relationship between challenge work stressors and creativity. In Study 2, work and non-work stressors were proposed as direct predictors of creativity in order to investigate work-family conflict and work-family enrichment as additional mechanisms that drive the relationship. Results indicated that work-related stressors positively relate to idea generation, whereas non-work stressors did not have a direct effect on creativity. However, work-to-family enrichment positively influenced creativity, indicating that non-work variables may be indirectly related and thus, additional third variables should be considered. Overall, the present dissertation bridges the gap between the creativity and work-family literatures, while providing additional insight to organizational leaders regarding the effect of work and non-work stress on employee creativity.