Date of Award

May 2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Business Administration

First Advisor

Romila Singh

Second Advisor

Margaret Shaffer

Committee Members

Mark Mone, Edward Levitas, Hong Ren

Keywords

Creativity, Intrinsic Motivation, Job Demands and Resources, Relational Resources, Resources, Role Overload

Abstract

Individual creativity is an important antecedent of organizational innovation (Amabile, 1988; Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin, 1993; Shalley, Zhou, & Oldham 2004). In the current hypercompetitive, global work environment, more managers recognize that in order to remain competitive, they need their employees to be engaged in their work and demonstrate creative behaviors (Mumford, Scott, Gaddis, & Strange, 2002). Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which individuals demonstrate creative behaviors at work, especially by utilizing the resources that are available to them to facilitate creativity and overcoming the demands that hinder their creative behavior at work.

Employing the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, which states job demands and resources can be used to predict motivational processes, and consequently organizational outcomes, I suggested that personal, relational, and organizational resources will promote creative behavior via their influence on intrinsic motivation. In this study, personal resources are comprised of creative self-efficacy and resilience whereas bonding and bridging ties represent the relational resources. Perceived organizational support for creativity comprises the organizational resource. Finally, I examined the moderating influence of a demand in the form of role overload; I proposed that role overload will moderate the relationship between resources and intrinsic motivation. Given the current tough economic times, role overload seems to have become an endemic feature of an employee's work life, and as such can be a meaningful job demand. I proposed that role overload will attenuate the positive impact of personal, relational, and organizational resources positive influence on intrinsic motivation, which in turn lead to creative behavior.

In order to test the hypothesized relationships, I collected data from a Fortune 100 organization; 126 employees from that organization filled out the survey and due to missing data 120 surveys were usable. I also collected 22 employee-supervisor dyads using existing validated scales for both groups. I used multiple regression analysis to analyze the data. Results indicated that both perceived organizational support and bridging ties are motivational resources. In addition, creative self-efficacy and bridging ties influenced creative behavior. Moreover, the results revealed that the relationship between bridging ties and creative behavior is mediated by intrinsic motivation. Finally, I observed that employees with bonding ties who experienced high role overload tended to have lower levels of intrinsic motivation.

In summary, my dissertation is an attempt to contribute to the creativity literature and Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. Specifically, this dissertation contributes to creativity literature by unifying several prominent resources in one study and examining their simultaneous influence on intrinsic motivation, which in turn was found to influence creative behavior. Furthermore, I introduced and examined the influence of role overload, as an important contextual factor, which extended our understanding of its moderating influence. My dissertation also contributes to the JD-R model by actually bringing in intrinsic motivation as representing the motivational process, which leads to positive organizational outcomes; thus far, JD-R framework has alluded to its role by looking at engagement as a motivational mechanism for organizational outcomes and not directly examined the contribution of intrinsic motivation in this process. Furthermore, even though theoretically suggested, this study is the first to empirically test the role of resources and demands on creative behavior, thus expanding the boundaries of JD-R. Finally, I contribute to the JD-R model by including relational resources that go beyond the supervisor and co-worker social support by bringing in bonding and bridging relationships outside of the work setting that contribute to positive work outcomes such as creative behavior.

Download

Share

COinS