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Full Length Research Paper
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Influence of
work support on employee creativity: An empirical
examination in the Peoples Republic of China
Duanxu Wang, Huijuan Xue* and Hongling
Su
School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058,
Peoples Republic of China.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
hjxuerxuerhj@zju.edu.cn.
Accepted 18 June, 2010 |
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Abstract |
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Employee creativity makes an important contribution to
organizational survival and development. Hence, researchers have
become increasingly interested in identifying the conditions
that influence employee creativity. One of these conditions is
work support for creativity. In the PRC, work support has
received more considerable research attention because it is
related to “Guanxi” which plays a key role in organizational
behavior. Unfortunately, the mechanism surrounding the
support-creativity link is not well understood. To help address
this situation, we examined the mediating roles of intrinsic
motivation and positive mood in the effect of support from both
supervisors and coworkers on employee creativity. Using data
from 233 employees in the PRC, we hypothesized and found that
(1) work support from both supervisors and coworkers was
positively related to employee creativity, (2) intrinsic
motivation mediated these relationships, (3) positive mood
mediated the relationship between the support from supervisors
and creativity, but not the relationship between support from
coworkers and creativity. Implications of these results for
research and practice were discussed.
Key words:
Work support from supervisors, work support from coworkers,
intrinsic motivation, positive mood, employee creativity. |
