Workplace fun and employee creativity: The mediating role of psychological safety

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Guodong Yang

I proposed a model to explain how workplace fun is effective in facilitating employee creativity, with a focus on the mediating role of psychological safety in this relationship. Participants comprised 269 employees of hotels in China. Results show that workplace fun had a direct, significantly positive effect on employee creativity, as well as an indirect relationship through the mediator of psychological safety. These findings show that a fun work environment helps to enhance employee creativity. Thus, it is beneficial for managers of organizations to create a fun work environment, and they should also consider employees' sense of psychological safety when allowing employees to have fun at work.

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Guodong Yang

Leader humor plays an important role in organizations because it affects employees' attitude and behavior. The positive effect of humor in organizations has been widely touted; however, research on the effect of leader humor on employee creativity is still rare. This study addressed how leader positive humor affects employee creativity and whether work engagement mediates this relationship. Data were collected from 233 supervisor–subordinate dyads in 23 Chinese hightech companies. Results of structural equation modeling indicate that leader positive humor was positively related to work engagement, and that work engagement was positively related to employee creativity. Additionally, work engagement mediated the relationship between leader positive humor and employee creativity. Thus, organizations should encourage managers to use positive humor to enhance employees' engagement at work, which will, in turn, lead to creative outcomes. This research extends understanding of the leader positive humor–employee creativity relationship.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Xuzhuo Liang ◽  
Jianchang Fan

Previous research has revealed the importance of leadership in promoting employee creativity. However, the mechanism by which selfsacrificial leadership facilitates employee creativity is not well understood. We proposed a model explaining why self-sacrificial leadership may enhance employee creativity, which we tested with data from 206 part-time Master of Business Administration students and their supervisors at two Chinese universities. Results of structural equation modeling analysis show that self-sacrificial leadership had a positive relationship with employee creativity, both directly and also indirectly through the mediator of psychological safety. These findings shed light on how self-sacrificial leadership helps to enhance employee creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Guodong Yang ◽  
Liyin Wang

We proposed a theoretical model explaining why workplace fun might enhance the proactive behavior of employee voice, and explored the mediating role of psychological safety in this relationship. Data were collected from a sample of 223 part-time students at three universities located in China, who were taking a Master of Business Administration course. The results of structural equation modeling show that workplace fun had a direct, significantly positive relationship with employee voice behavior, and that there was also an indirect effect through the mediator of psychological safety. These findings shed light on the ways in which workplace fun helps to increase employee voice behavior. Managers of organizations should consider ways to create a work environment that is fun to promote employees' psychological safety and voice behavior. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Yang ◽  
Fu Yang ◽  
Chao Ding

PurposeThe current study examines the effects of leader humor on the creativity of employees by focusing on the mediating role of relational energy and the moderating role of traditionality.Design/methodology/approachThis study used three-wave data from 302 employee–supervisor dyads and tested the hypotheses using hierarchical regression and bootstrapping.FindingsThe results indicated that leader humor was positively associated with employee creativity, relational energy mediated this influence. Besides, traditionality not only moderated the relationship between leader humor and relational energy but also attenuated the indirect relationship between leader humor and employee creativity through relational energy.Practical implicationsLeadership training programs can be used to assist leaders in improving their humorous skills. In addition, supervisors should implement humorous behaviors according to the different levels of traditionality of employees.Originality/valueIntegrating conservation of resource theory, this study provides solid evidence that the extent to which relational energy mediates the relationship between leader humor and employee creativity depends on traditionality. It provides a new direction for leader humor.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 420-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofen Yu ◽  
Donghua Li ◽  
Chia-Han Tsai ◽  
Chunhsien Wang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles of four distinct but related aspects of psychological capital – optimism, hope, self-efficacy and resilience – in facilitating employee creativity. Drawing on the psychological capital perspective and the creativity literature, we propose that optimism and hope increase employee self-efficacy and resilience, which benefits employee creativity. Moreover, the authors hypothesize that self-efficacy and resilience have mediating roles in the psychological capital context, which, in turn, has a positive effect on individual employees’ creativity. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from a survey of multiple manufacturing firms on individual employee psychological capital and creativity. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses regarding psychological capital and creativity in a sample of 468 individual employees. Findings The results provide evidence that only resilience plays a mediating role between optimism and hope and employee creativity. The authors found that psychological capital is positively related to employee creativity. Practical implications These findings provide guidance for understanding how to better address the psychological capital that contributes to employee creativity in the workplace. Specifically, this study provides a rationale for facilitating the development of employee creativity by exposing the effect and path of psychological capital. Originality/value This study is the first to examine the antecedents and mediating role of four distinct yet correlated dimensions of psychological capital on employee creativity. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical development of a conceptual model that investigates the black box of the four aspects of psychological capital and creativity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hsueh-Feng Wang ◽  
Yu-Chia Chen ◽  
Feng-Hua Yang ◽  
Chi-Wen Juan

Rapid changes in the healthcare environment necessitate improvements in employee performance. We examined the relationship between nurse managers' transformational leadership and nurses' job performance, and the key mediating role of psychological safety in this relationship. Personnel at six private regional teaching hospitals in Central Taiwan participated in this study, comprising 73 nurse managers and 719 nurses. The results show that when the intergroup heterogeneity of job performance was statistically significant, a positive correlation existed between transformational leadership and job performance at the group level. Next, we performed an analysis using psychological safety as a mediating variable. The results show there was a significant correlation between transformational leadership and perception of psychological safety. This model exhibited lower variance and a better fit than the other examined models. Thus, emphasizing transformational leadership and psychological safety in operations and management could effectively improve nurses' job performance; this recommendation could serve as a standard for nurse managers in their duties.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xun Zhang ◽  
Biao Xu ◽  
Jun Wu

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mechanism of its impact in the Chinese business-to-business (B2B) context. Design/methodology/approach Renqing in China has played an important role in business relationships and has been receiving increased attention in both practice and theory. However, little is known about whether it can influence purchase intentions in a rational B2B condition. This research aims to examine the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mechanism of its impact in the Chinese B2B context. Based on a survey of 1,010 industry buyers from 468 Chinese downstream buyer companies, the empirical findings indicate a positive relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mediating role of long-term orientation (LTO) for increasing purchase intentions. In addition, this study also finds that product involvement (PI) has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions, which means that renqing has a big positive effect on purchase intentions in low PI conditions. The results highlight several implications for B2B companies that sell products to Chinese enterprises. Findings The empirical findings indicate a positive relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mediating role of LTO for increasing purchase intentions. In addition, this study also finds that PI has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions, which means that renqing has a big positive effect on purchase intentions in low PI conditions. Originality/value First of all, by answering the research question, this study shows that renqing has a positive effect on purchase intentions in Chinese B2B context. Second, this study elucidates the influence mechanism of renqing on purchase intention and identifies the mediating effect of LTO and the moderating effect of PI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Guodong Yang ◽  
Yingwei Ji ◽  
Qiumeng Xu

Zhongyong, as a typical Confucian thinking model, is related to employees' voice behavior. In this research we explored the relationship between Zhongyong thinking and employees' voice behavior, and examined the mediating effect of psychological safety in this relationship. Survey data were collected from 218 part-time Master of Business Administration students from two Chinese universities. The structural equation modeling results demonstrate that Zhongyong thinking was positively related to psychological safety, and that psychological safety was positively related to voice behavior. Further, psychological safety mediated the Zhongyong thinking–voice behavior relationship. These results suggest that organizations can encourage voice behavior by enhancing employees' Zhongyong thinking and by boosting their perception of psychological safety in the workplace.


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