Abstract
Organizational creativity has become one of the major research areas in the field of organizational behavior during the last two decades. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the association between universal individual values and employee creative behavior and explores the mediating effect of leadership on the relationship between individual values and employee creative behavior. The research sample was chosen from service sector employees owing to the fact that the role of leadership and motivation for creativity is especially important in knowledge intensive, complex and uncertain environments. Survey method was used to examine the perceptions of the respondents about individual values and leadership style, and their impact on self-perceived creative behavior. Hierarchical regression and Sobel Test were applied to examine the mediating effect of leadership on individual values and employee creative behavior relationship. The results show that the individual value dimensions of self direction, achievement, and universalism explain the majority of variance in employee creative behavior. The findings of both the hierarchical multiple regression analysis and the Sobel test support the partial mediating effect of leadership on individual values and employee creative behavior relationship. The originality of the paper is related to the attempt for understanding the mediating effect of leadership on individual values and creativity relationship which has been under-researched in the literature. Furthermore, the study intends to contribute to a new and important research agenda through the examination of the relationship between universal basic values and employee creative behavior in a sample of Turkish employees.
Highlights
Creativity has become an important component for organizations to retain success and to gain competitive advantage in today‟s highly competitive business world (Shalley & Gilson, 2004; Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 1993), predicated on the fact that corporations face a dynamic environment surrounded by rapid technological changes, shortened product life cycles and globalization
Among the six categories that represent the position held in the organization, 29.2 percent were technical staff, 23.2 percent were specialists and 15.1 percent were managers. 41.9 percent of the respondents had been working in the current organization over 5 years
Self-direction, universalism, and achievement were found to explain the majority of variance in employee creative behavior (ECB)
Summary
Creativity has become an important component for organizations to retain success and to gain competitive advantage in today‟s highly competitive business world (Shalley & Gilson, 2004; Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 1993), predicated on the fact that corporations face a dynamic environment surrounded by rapid technological changes, shortened product life cycles and globalization. Researchers have claimed that in order to deal with environmental pressures, and to enhance the innovativeness of organizations, the creative performance of the employees need to be improved, because creativity is considered as the starting point of all innovation (Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996; Shalley, 1995). More than ever before, organizations strive for creativity and innovation (Zhou, 1998). Organizations, especially the ones in the service industries, need to be innovative and creative in order to survive and compete. Enhancing the creativity of employees has rapidly become a key goal of many organizations (Mumford, Scott, Gaddis, & Strange, 2002; Atwater & Carmeli, 2009)
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