Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure

Creativity and innovation are vital for organizational growth and success, driving many organizations to increase pressure for employee creativity. Yet, researchers have neglected investigating how employees respond to creativity pressure at the workplace. This dissertation introduces and develops a...

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Main Author: EUN, Hye Jung
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Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/351
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1342&context=etd_coll
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spelling sg-smu-ink.etd_coll-13422021-07-28T06:07:28Z Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure EUN, Hye Jung Creativity and innovation are vital for organizational growth and success, driving many organizations to increase pressure for employee creativity. Yet, researchers have neglected investigating how employees respond to creativity pressure at the workplace. This dissertation introduces and develops a new scale for the concept of organizational creativity pressure – the pressure on employees to continually develop novel and useful ideas and solutions. The scale is further validated through extensive assessment of content and construct validity, empirically differentiating the construct from similar others such as performance pressure and support for creativity. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and the need-based theory of work motivation (Green, Finkel, Fitzsimons, & Gino, 2017), I theorize that organizational creativity pressure is appraised more strongly as a challenge stressor than a hindrance stressor, in turn promoting work engagement in employees. Building on the emerging research on gender and creativity, I further theorize that the positive effects of organizational creativity pressure on challenge appraisal and work engagement are stronger for men than for women. Four studies provide evidence consistent with the model. Interestingly, the pattern of interaction is such that men are significantly less motivated and engaged than women at low organizational creativity pressure. At high organizational creativity pressure, there is no significant gender difference in work engagement. Women are also not more likely to see organizational creativity pressure as a hindrance stressor compared to men. This essay has important theoretical contributions to research in creativity, gender, and workplace stress. In a separate chapter, I investigate whether organizational creativity pressure induces feeling of task uncertainty among employees, which in turn leads to negative perception of fairness in the workplace. In sum, this dissertation draws attention to the new construct and the related workplace phenomenon, develops a scale to provide a foundation for empirically rigorous research and investigates both positive and negative effects of organizational creativity pressure in the workplace. 2021-05-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/351 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1342&context=etd_coll http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access) eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Creativity Innovation Workplace stressor Pressure Engagement Gender Uncertainty Fairness Organizational Behavior and Theory Organization Development
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Creativity
Innovation
Workplace stressor
Pressure
Engagement
Gender
Uncertainty
Fairness
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Organization Development
spellingShingle Creativity
Innovation
Workplace stressor
Pressure
Engagement
Gender
Uncertainty
Fairness
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Organization Development
EUN, Hye Jung
Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure
description Creativity and innovation are vital for organizational growth and success, driving many organizations to increase pressure for employee creativity. Yet, researchers have neglected investigating how employees respond to creativity pressure at the workplace. This dissertation introduces and develops a new scale for the concept of organizational creativity pressure – the pressure on employees to continually develop novel and useful ideas and solutions. The scale is further validated through extensive assessment of content and construct validity, empirically differentiating the construct from similar others such as performance pressure and support for creativity. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and the need-based theory of work motivation (Green, Finkel, Fitzsimons, & Gino, 2017), I theorize that organizational creativity pressure is appraised more strongly as a challenge stressor than a hindrance stressor, in turn promoting work engagement in employees. Building on the emerging research on gender and creativity, I further theorize that the positive effects of organizational creativity pressure on challenge appraisal and work engagement are stronger for men than for women. Four studies provide evidence consistent with the model. Interestingly, the pattern of interaction is such that men are significantly less motivated and engaged than women at low organizational creativity pressure. At high organizational creativity pressure, there is no significant gender difference in work engagement. Women are also not more likely to see organizational creativity pressure as a hindrance stressor compared to men. This essay has important theoretical contributions to research in creativity, gender, and workplace stress. In a separate chapter, I investigate whether organizational creativity pressure induces feeling of task uncertainty among employees, which in turn leads to negative perception of fairness in the workplace. In sum, this dissertation draws attention to the new construct and the related workplace phenomenon, develops a scale to provide a foundation for empirically rigorous research and investigates both positive and negative effects of organizational creativity pressure in the workplace.
format text
author EUN, Hye Jung
author_facet EUN, Hye Jung
author_sort EUN, Hye Jung
title Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure
title_short Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure
title_full Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure
title_fullStr Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure
title_full_unstemmed Pressure to be creative: How employees respond to organizational creativity pressure
title_sort pressure to be creative: how employees respond to organizational creativity pressure
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2021
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/351
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1342&context=etd_coll
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