PREDICTORS AND OUTCOMES OF CREATIVITY COMPONENTS: A STUDY IN INDIAN PSUs

Abstract

In today’s competitive business landscape, organizations are going through very dynamic and turbulent situations which not only put forth diverse challenges offering a threat to firms survival in the market, but also open new prospects for them to grow, compete and achieve the an extra edge over their rivals constantly. In this context, creativity is one of the crucial aspects of business strategy which can potentially help organizations to avail present and future business opportunities, face diverse challenges and further achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Taking into consideration this vitality of creativity, it is necessary to enhance understanding on creativity constituents so as to leverage employees’ creative potential and stimulate their productivity to facilitate capitalization of market opportunities, and further realize superior firm performance. Therefore, it is worthy to undertake an in-depth examination of creativity constituents, their predictors and outcomes. In light of this, the present study aims at an empirical examination of the personal and contextual predictors, and the individual and organizational level outcomes of creativity components. Grounded on the insightful literature review, a theoretical framework is developed comprising of proactive personality, organizational learning culture, authentic leadership, and psychological empowerment as personal and contextual predictors, intrinsic motivation, creativity-relevant skills and domain-relevant skills as creativity components, and creative performance and innovation capability as the individual and organizational level outcomes. Data were collected using 367 structured questionnaires, which were administered via a field survey in manufacturing PSUs operating in the northern region of India. Respondents were selected based on convenience sampling technique. Data were analysed using the structural equation modelling technique. Results of the structural model endorse the significant influence of proactive personality, organizational learning culture, authentic leadership and psychological empowerment on creativity components, and further the influence of creativity components on individual creative performance and organizational innovation capability. In addition to this, certain interesting findings turned up. It was revealed that authentic leadership plays a vital role in elevating intrinsic motivation in comparison to organizational learning culture and psychological empowerment. In case of creativity-relevant skills, proactive personality and leader support are the major determinants. Organizational learning culture emerged as the major contributory factor for facilitating domain-relevant expertise in individuals. Among the creativity components motivation factor surfaced as the most vital for creative performance. Creativity-relevant skills have been found to have more effect on innovation capability than any other creativity components. Overall, the study offers a comprehensive iv framework that integrates creativity components with their personality and contextual predictors, and individual and organizational level outcomes in the context of Indian manufacturing PSUs. As a final point, the present study offers noteworthy implications for managers and HRD professionals.