Moderating effects of social environment on the relationship between individual components of creativity and creativity

Abstract

Literature has indicated that while creativity is accepted as a salient factor of the success of organizations, it has not being given sufficient attention and it is often treated as a neglected concept. Since previous studies had identified individual components of creativity as an essential determinant of creativity, this research aims at investigating the direct, positive relationship of individual components of creativity (Domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant processes and intrinsic task motivation), each of its component and creativity. In addition, as the significance of social environment in previous literature has been stated as an outside component, the moderating effect of social environment (Freedom, challenging work, managerial encouragement, work group support, organizational encouragement, sufficient resources, realistic workload pressure and lack of organizational impediments) on the relationship between individual components of creativity and creativity has been investigated as another objective of the research. A sample of 289 engineering students from Malaysian public universities participated in this study. The hypotheses have been evaluated using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis, also known as the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. The findings reveal that 49.8 percent of the variance of creativity is explained by individual components of creativity and social environment. They also indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between individual components of creativity (As a whole and one of its constructs) and creativity. Furthermore, the results support three of the predicted moderating effects and the relationship between two components of individual components of creativity and creativity is positively moderated by social environment. This research has both theoretical and practical contributions to the field of creativity by elaborating the direct and moderating effects of social environment on individual components of creativity and creativity.