Creativity in a Changing World: How Personality, Work Environment, and Flexibility Affect Employee Creativity

The work environment can have a measurable impact on the extent to which a person generates new and potentially useful ideas. The present study tested a comprehensive model of personality and employee creativity, moderated by the work environment. I proposed moderation effects that physical and social-organizational elements in the work environment as well as workplace flexibility may have on employee creativity. Participants (N = 81) were invited to take an online survey examining personality traits, the work environment, and creativity. Results showed that openness to experience was a significant predictor of employee creativity. Findings also suggested that the relationship between personality and employee creativity is altered by social-organizational elements in the work environment. Specifically, employees with high levels of openness displayed more divergent thinking and creative behavior in the office work environment when levels of realized social-organizational elements were high. Additionally, employees with high levels of extraversion engaged in less creative behaviors in the home work environment when levels of realized social-organizational elements were very low. The relationship between personality and employee creativity is also altered by the perceived importance of social-organizational elements in the workplace in general. Findings revealed that employees with high levels of openness displayed more creative behavior and ideational behavior when the perceived importance of social-organizational elements in the workplace in general was high. Conversely, findings revealed that employees with high levels of extraversion displayed less creative behavior and ideational behavior when the perceived importance of social-organizational elements in the workplace in general was low. Given the lack of research exploring moderating effects of the work environment on creativity, further research is recommended to investigate the impact of both physical and social-organizational elements and workplace flexibility on employee creativity, the ability to generate novel and potentially useful ideas.