Fun, Friends, and Creativity: A Social Capital Perspective (WITHDRAWN)

Abstract

Although creativity research has devoted considerable effort towards identifying the antecedents of creativity, there remains important questions about how organizations can foster creativity through social processes. Drawing from social capital theory, we hypothesize a moderated mediation model that investigates the influence of employee participation in fun activities on individual creativity through workplace friendships. We further hypothesize that the strength of this positive indirect effect is weaker for managers compared to non-managers. Our analysis of data collected from a multi-source, three-wave field study (n = 163 employees) reveals a positive mediation between participation in fun activities and incremental creativity (but not radical creativity) via workplace friendships. Contrary to expectations, the results support a moderated mediation relationship, such that the moderating effect of manager status on the relationship between participation in fun activities and incremental creativity via workplace friendships was significant for non-managers and insignificant for managers. Our findings not only highlight the practical and theoretical importance of fun activities in generating novel and useful ideas, but they also reveal that the benefits derived from fun activities (i.e., strengthened friendships, incremental creativity) are particularly salient for non-managers.