Antecedents of Employee Creativity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: the Mediating Role of Psychological Safety

Tan, Xuen Min (2022) Antecedents of Employee Creativity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: the Mediating Role of Psychological Safety. Final Year Project (Masters), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Employee creativity has emerged as a sustainable source of competitive advantage for organisations to survive and thrive in the extremely challenging and fast-changing business environment. Lately, employee creativity has gained importance during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of the extensive changes in operational practices and greatly impacted development potential of organisations. Hence, employee creativity plays a crucial role in stimulating innovation and creating new products, services and processes that could strengthen organisational competitiveness in this time of crisis. This study examines the mediating effect of psychological safety on corporate social responsibility, transformational leadership and perceived organisational support, and how these affect employee creativity. To achieve the objectives of this research, a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional method have been employed using 220 employees who are currently working in various sectors in Malaysia. The data obtained are then analysed via Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM, namely SmartPLS). The research findings reveal that corporate social responsibility, transformational leadership and perceived organisational support create a climate of psychological safety among employees, which in turn mediates their respective relationships with employee creativity. This study contributes to the literature by examining the determinants of employee creativity (i.e., corporate social responsibility, transformational leadership, and perceived organisational support) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia, which has not been examined before. Furthermore, this research incorporates the role of psychological safety as a mediator to inspect the underlying reasons that motivate employees to be involved in creative behaviours. From a practical perspective, this research raises awareness of organisations to review their corporate social responsibility policies, leadership style adopted and organisational support rendered to employees so as to foster psychological safety and stimulate employee creativity.