The Roles of Proactive Personality and Career Satisfaction in the Impact of Employer Brand Attributes Congruence on Creativity.

Abstract

Although the relationship between employer brand and employee creativity has become a popular theme, this nexus is indirect and ambiguous. Additionally, most studies ignore the consistency of instrumental and symbolic attributes when discussing the consequences of employer brand. This study explored the mechanism of employer brand attributes congruence on employee creativity through career satisfaction, and further revealed the moderating role of proactive personality. Based on the cue consistency theory and the social information processing theory, a polynomial regression model was created and a response surface analysis was conducted using 488 paired questionnaires. The results showed that employer brand attributes congruence impacted employee creativity via career satisfaction. A consistent employer brand strategy is more effective for the creativity of less proactive individuals, while a high-level proactive personality can compensate for the deficiencies of employer brand attributes incongruence. The results complemented employer brand research from the perspective of the instrumental-symbolic attribute configuration and provided supportive empirical evidence of employer brand practices aiming at improving employee creativity. This study has certain practical implications for HR practitioners.