"Innovative Cognitive Style, Proactive Personality, Working Conditions and Employee Creativity (WITHDRAWN)"

Abstract

Research on human resource management has acknowledged the importance of innovative cognitive style and proactive personality to employee creativity, but only few empirical studies have investigated the influence of work conditions by taking an interactionist perspective. Work discretion and time pressure, two critical contextual factors suggested to impact employee creativity in organizational literature, may also influence how individuals convert their innovative cognitive style and proactive personality into creativity. In an attempt to extend the current understanding of creativity in organizations, this study aims to examine the relationship between individual attributes (innovative cognitive style and proactive personality) and employee creativity, and how the relationship is moderated by work discretion and time pressure. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the proposed hypotheses for a sample of 344 middle-level managers in Taiwanese manufacturing companies, including R&D managers and marketing managers. Results suggest that innovative cognitive style and proactive personality are positively related to employee creativity. Work discretion was found to enhance employee creativity while time pressure was found to constrain creativity. Our findings reveal that proactive personality can increase employees' creative potential especially when they have more discretion over performing tasks. In contrast, when employees perceive themselves to work under time pressure, the positive influence of innovative cognitive style on creativity becomes weaker.