TY - JOUR
T1 - Fun, Friends, and Creativity
T2 - A Social Capital Perspective
AU - Boekhorst, Janet A.
AU - Halinski, Michael
AU - Good, Jessica R.L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Creative Education Foundation(CEF)
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Although creativity research has devoted considerable effort toward identifying the antecedents of creativity, there remain important questions about how organizations can foster creativity through social processes. Drawing from social capital theory, we hypothesize a moderated mediation model that investigates the influence of employee participation in fun activities on individual creativity through workplace friendships. We further hypothesize that the strength of this positive indirect effect is weaker for managers compared with non-managers. Our analysis of data collected from a multi-source, three-wave field study (n = 163 employees) reveals a positive mediation between participation in fun activities and incremental creativity (but not radical creativity) via workplace friendships. The results further support our prediction that this positive indirect effect on incremental creativity is weaker for managers compared with non-managers. Our findings not only highlight the practical and theoretical importance of fun activities in generating novel and useful ideas, but the results also reveal that the benefits derived from fun activities (i.e., strengthened friendships, incremental creativity) are particularly salient for non-managers.
AB - Although creativity research has devoted considerable effort toward identifying the antecedents of creativity, there remain important questions about how organizations can foster creativity through social processes. Drawing from social capital theory, we hypothesize a moderated mediation model that investigates the influence of employee participation in fun activities on individual creativity through workplace friendships. We further hypothesize that the strength of this positive indirect effect is weaker for managers compared with non-managers. Our analysis of data collected from a multi-source, three-wave field study (n = 163 employees) reveals a positive mediation between participation in fun activities and incremental creativity (but not radical creativity) via workplace friendships. The results further support our prediction that this positive indirect effect on incremental creativity is weaker for managers compared with non-managers. Our findings not only highlight the practical and theoretical importance of fun activities in generating novel and useful ideas, but the results also reveal that the benefits derived from fun activities (i.e., strengthened friendships, incremental creativity) are particularly salient for non-managers.
KW - fun activities
KW - individual creativity
KW - managers
KW - social capital
KW - workplace friendships
KW - workplace fun
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120397305&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jocb.502
DO - 10.1002/jocb.502
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120397305
SN - 0022-0175
VL - 55
SP - 970
EP - 983
JO - Journal of Creative Behavior
JF - Journal of Creative Behavior
IS - 4
ER -