Social Factors of Work-Environment Creativity

• Published in: Journal of business and psychology Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 407 - 428
• Main Authors: Schepers, Paul, van den Berg, Peter T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer Science + Business Media, Inc 01.03.2007; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business innovation; Corporate culture; Creativity; Employee involvement; Employees; Innovations; Knowledge management; Knowledge sharing; Learning; Organizational behavior; Organizational culture; Participation; Perception; Perceptions; Perceptual organization; Procedural justice; Social innovation; Social psychology; Studies; Teams; Technological innovation; Work environment; Work environments; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0889-3268; 1573-353X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10869-006-9035-4

The aim of this study was to investigate how work-environment creativity is related to the social factors of: organizational-culture perceptions, employee participation, knowledge sharing, and procedural justice. Questionnaires were administered to 154 employees of a government organization. Because the employees within a department worked in diverse teams and their work environments may have varied, our analysis was conducted at the level of the individual. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that work-environment creativity was related to adhocracy-culture perceptions, employee participation, and knowledge sharing; that knowledge sharing was related to cooperative-team perceptions and procedural justice; and that knowledge sharing mediated the relationships of cooperative-team perceptions and procedural justice with work-environment creativity. Practical implications of the results are discussed.