Purpose: Employee creativity is a key factor that helps organizations to gain competitive advantages. The aim of this study is to add to the knowledge of the antecedents of employee creativity. Based on the derivative view of self-determination theory, we analyzed how personal sense of power affects employee creativity, and the mediating role of affective commitment and creative self-efficacy.
Participants and Methods: The participants in this study were 227 on-the-job MBA students (120 males and 107 females, mean age was 32.256 years, age range was between 24 and 52 years) at a university in southwestern China. To collect data, a three-wave survey was conducted. Participants were asked to report: personal sense of power, demographic variables, and zhongyong at Time 1; affective commitment and creative self-efficacy at Time 2; creativity at Time 3. PROCESS was employed to test the hypotheses.
Results: Personal sense of power has a significant and positive impact on creativity (b = 0.333, SE = 0.052, p < 0.01). Both affective commitment (b = 0.058, 95% CI [0.024, 0.107]) and creative self-efficacy (b = 0.139, 95% CI [0.078, 0.224]) mediate the relationship between personal sense of power and creativity.
Conclusion: Personal sense of power was positively correlated with employee creativity while affective commitment and creative self-efficacy mediated their relationship.
Keywords: personal sense of power, employee creativity, affective commitment, creative self-efficacy, self-determination theory