The role of psychological capital in employee creativity

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles of four distinct but related aspects of psychological capital – optimism, hope, self-efficacy and resilience – in facilitating employee creativity. Drawing on the psychological capital perspective and the creativity literature, we propose that optimism and hope increase employee self-efficacy and resilience, which benefits employee creativity. Moreover, the authors hypothesize that self-efficacy and resilience have mediating roles in the psychological capital context, which, in turn, has a positive effect on individual employees’ creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were obtained from a survey of multiple manufacturing firms on individual employee psychological capital and creativity. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses regarding psychological capital and creativity in a sample of 468 individual employees.

Findings

The results provide evidence that only resilience plays a mediating role between optimism and hope and employee creativity. The authors found that psychological capital is positively related to employee creativity.

Practical implications

These findings provide guidance for understanding how to better address the psychological capital that contributes to employee creativity in the workplace. Specifically, this study provides a rationale for facilitating the development of employee creativity by exposing the effect and path of psychological capital.

Originality/value

This study is the first to examine the antecedents and mediating role of four distinct yet correlated dimensions of psychological capital on employee creativity. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical development of a conceptual model that investigates the black box of the four aspects of psychological capital and creativity.