Justice climate and employee creativity in the work uncertainty context: a cross-level investigation

• Published in: Asian business & management Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 1065 - 1093
• Main Authors: Sun, Li-Yun, Li, Chenwei, Pan, Wen, Leung, Alicia S. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.07.2023; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Asian Culture; Business and Management; Climate; Creativity; Employees; Indirect effects; Individual differences; Influence; International Business; Investigations; Management theory; Multisource; Original Article; Perceptions; Procedural justice; Psychological safety; Self-efficacy; Teams; Teamwork; Uncertainty; Team work uncertainty; Psychological safety; Justice climate; Creative self-efficacy; Employee creativity
• ISSN: 1472-4782; 1476-9328
• DOI: 10.1057/s41291-022-00191-5

Drawing on uncertainty management theory, our cross-level process model explains why and how distributive, procedural, and interactional justice climates in teams influence individual-level employee creativity. Based on a multilevel, multisource, and multiwave sample of 218 supervisor–subordinate matched data in 40 teams, our study obtains three major findings. First, distributive, procedural, and interactional justice climates and work uncertainty have interactive effects on individual-level psychological safety and creative self-efficacy. Second, three types of justice climates have indirect effects on employee creativity only through individual-level creative self-efficacy. Third, team work uncertainty moderates the indirect effects of three types of justice climates on employee creativity through individual-level creative self-efficacy (but not through individual-level psychological safety). These moderating and moderated indirect effects are stronger under higher team work uncertainty.