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The role of psychological capital
in employee creativity
Xiaofen Yu
Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China
Donghua Li
College of Economics and Management,
Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China
Chia-Han Tsai
Department of Business Administration,
National Chiayi University –Sinmin Campus, Chiayi City, Taiwan, and
Chunhsien Wang
College of Management,
National Chiayi University –Sinmin Campus, Chiayi City, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles of four distinct but related aspects of
psychological capital –optimism, hope, self-efficacy and resilience –in facilitating employee creativity.
Drawing on the psychological capital perspective and the creativity literature, we propose that optimism and
hope increase employee self-efficacy and resilience, which benefits employee creativity. Moreover, the authors
hypothesize that self-efficacy and resilience have mediating roles in the psychological capital context, which,
in turn, has a positive effect on individual employees’creativity.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were obtained from a survey of multiple manufacturing firms on
individual employee psychological capital and creativity. Structural equation modeling was used to test the
hypotheses regarding psychological capital and creativity in a sample of 468 individual employees.
Findings –The results provide evidence that only resilience plays a mediating role between optimism and hope
and employee creativity.The authors found that psychological capital is positively related to employee creativity.
Practical implications –These findings provide guidance for understanding how to better address the
psychological capital that contributes to employee creativity in the workplace. Specifically, this study
provides a rationale for facilitating the development of employee creativity by exposing the effect and path of
psychological capital.
Originality/value –This study is the first to examine the antecedents and mediating role of four distinct yet
correlated dimensions of psychological capital on employee creativity. The findings of this study contribute to
the theoretical development of a conceptual model that investigates the black box of the four aspects of
psychological capital and creativity.
Keywords Self-efficacy, Resilience, Hope, Employee creativity, Optimism, Psychological capital
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In an era of global competition and dynamic environments, the workplace and work lives
of employees are transformed by economic, social and technological changes and
developments. The constantly changing world also poses challenges for organizations and
requires employee to be creative, which manifests as thriving on chaos, being proactive,
and growing by overcoming hardships and difficulties. Previous research has posited that
employee creativity can fundamentally contribute to the workplace (Madjar et al., 2002)
and organizational competitive advantage (George and Zhou, 2002; Oldham and
Career Development International
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1362-0436
DOI 10.1108/CDI-04-2018-0103
Received 28 April 2018
Revised 24 October 2018
11 February 2019
22 February 2019
Accepted 22 February 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1362-0436.htm
The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China, for financially
supporting this research under Contract No. 71774144. The authors would also like to acknowledge the
contribution of the Guest Editor, Dr Tachia Chin and two anonymous referees for their valuable
comments and constructive suggestions that have contributed significantly to this paper.
Psychological
capital in
employee
creativity
Cummings, 1996; Amabile, 1996; Argyris and Schön, 1978; Nonaka, 1991; Oldham, 2002;
Chin et al., 2016). The findings from previous studies were based on the assumption
that employee creativity is beneficial for workplace and organizational outcomes, and
researchers have devoted considerable attention to identifying the importance of
employee creativity; however, they have shown much less interest in its antecedents and
effects. Some researchers believe that employee creativity flourishes when the role of
psychological capital, hereafter referred to as PsyCap, has strong potential to promote
employee creativity (Avey et al., 2012; Cai et al., 2018; Rego et al., 2012; Sweetman et al.,
2011). To date, only a few studies have attempted to determine the impact of PsyCap
on employee creativity in the workplace context. Cai et al. (2018) argued that the
PsyCap construct as a whole is associated with positive employee creativity rather than
each of its four distinct aspects. However, each of the four aspects of PsyCap may
independently influence employee creativity and thus lead to different desirable outcomes
(Rego et al., 2014). This study attempts to address this issue by investigating how four
distinct aspects of PsyCap, including optimism, hope, self-efficacy and resilience, impact
employee creativity.
The purpose of the present study is to develop and test how PsyCap and its four distinct
aspects drive individual employee creativity. Building on the componential theory of
creativity (Amabile, 1996), we develop this perspective by exploring the black box
of PsyCap, which may foster individual creativity. Consistent with the componential theory
of the creativity perspective, employee creativity results in beneficial outcomes that vary
among individuals, including domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant processes and
intrinsic task motivation (Amabile, 1983, 1985, 2013). With its emphasis on intrinsic
motivation and creativity, we believe that the componential theory of creativity may offer a
rich conceptual framework through which to examine the complexities related to the four
distinct aspects of PsyCap and the resulting creative outcomes. Drawing on the connection
between the componential theory of creativity and PsyCap, we propose that self-efficacy
and resilience mediate the extent to which individual optimism and hope are associated with
employee creativity.
Our study thus makes a number of potential contributions. First, we introduce the
componential theory of creativity (Amabile, 1996), which is tied to employees’intrinsic
motivation, domain expertise, creative thinking and creative action. By focusing on the
componential theory of creativity, we address a gap in theliteratureconcerningthe
relationship between PsyCap and creativity using a well-elaborated self-construct that has
been extensively tested in various research fields. Second, because our study is based on a
theoretical framework that combines the literature on PsyCap and the componential
theory of creativity, it provides an important integrative theoretical contribution. This
integration should enable us to address a number of outstanding issues and gaps in both
the PsyCap and creativity research. Third, we add previously unexplored constructs to
the current literature on the relationship between the four distinct aspects of PsyCap and
employees’creativity to show their distinct individual and synergistic influences, thereby
employing protean and holistic perspectives more precisely in the relationship between
PsyCap and employees’creativity outcomes. Accordingly, this study develops a
conceptual model and hypothesizes the mediating role of self-efficacy and resilience
between hope and optimism and employee creativity. Fourth, based on the componential
theory of creativity, we hypothesize that self-efficacy and resilience mediate the effects of
hope and optimism on employee creativity. Our results extend previous research
(e.g. Avey et al., 2012; Cai et al., 2018; Sweetman et al., 2011) and suggest that self-efficacy
and resilience serve as necessary conduits for enhancing employees’creativity. We also
highlight the critical role of self-efficacy and resilience for employees involved in at least
the idea generation phase.
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Research background and hypotheses
Employee PsyCap and creativity
Some theories suggest that PsyCap may be particularly susceptible to the influence of
employees’positive behavior, mainly because positive behavior leads to positive affect and
cognition that stimulates creativity (Avey et al., 2010, 2012; Luthans et al., 2007; Sweetman
et al., 2011; Cai et al., 2018; Chin et al., 2018). For example, Newman et al. (2018) argue that
positive PsyCap promotes the development of personal turnover intentions and
organizational commitment. Similarly, employees’positive PsyCap may drive individual
positive thinking and behavior in the workplace or in career development (Cenciotti et al.,
2017; Alessandri et al., 2018). Positive PsyCap can be viewed as a set of justified
psychological beliefs that can enhance personal capacity for effective action and behavioral
outcomes (Cenciotti et al., 2017; Alessandri et al., 2018). Many previous studies have focused
on identifying the dimensions of PsyCap and examining PsyCap’s roles in and effects on
employees’outcomes in areas such as future outcomes (Fredrikson, 2001), work attitude
(Avey et al., 2010; Newman et al., 2018), work performance (Avey et al., 2010; Alessandri
et al., 2018; Luthans et al. 2007; Madrid et al., 2018), engagement (Alessandri et al., 2018),
career success (Cenciotti et al., 2017; Alessandri et al., 2018), innovative performance (Abbas
and Raja, 2015) and creativity (Rego et al., 2012). To understand the findings of past studies,
it is helpful to combine the four positive PsyCap components that act synergistically to
promote improved employee attitudes, behaviors and outcomes.
Although positive PsyCap is widely recognized as a potentially vital source of intrinsic
motivation, relatively less attention has been devoted to the possible characteristics of
PsyCap that facilitate the creativity of individual employees (Sweetman et al., 2011; Rego
et al., 2012; Zubair and Kamal, 2015). In recent decades, researchers have started to address
this issue and have attempted to explain and predict creativity or creative performance
using PsyCap (e.g. Sweetman et al., 2011; Rego et al., 2012; Zubair and Kamal, 2015). In these
efforts, most researchers have tried to identify the impact of PsyCap and its components on
employee creativity as an antecedent (Rego et al., 2012), mediator (Sweetman et al., 2011) or
moderator (Zubair and Kamal, 2015). In these studies, PsyCap was treated as an aggregation
of its four components, e.g., efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience, and it was used in
regression or path analysis along with other antecedents. Additionally, researchers have
focused more on the influence of general PsyCap on creative behaviors than on the
dimensions of PsyCap. Zubair and Kamal (2015) argued for conceptualizing PsyCap as a
core construct or an integrated resource set rather than as isolated components based on
psychological resource theory because the dimensions have been empirically found to be
interactive and synergistic (Cozzarelli, 1993; Rini et al., 1999).
In this study, we propose that not all characteristics of PsyCap are equally important for
influencing the creativity of individual employees and that the extent to which the
components of PsyCap are conducive to the generation of employees’creativity depends on
the first-order psychological resources of self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience.
Although research has shown that PsyCap is a higher order construct, suggesting that hope,
optimism, self-efficacy and resilience are a relevant set of individual resources (Luthans and
Youssef, 2004; Luthans et al., 2007) and that the four component resources load on the higher
order core construct of PsyCap with convergent and discriminant validity (Luthans et al.,
2010), the higher order of PsyCap has prevented researchers from fully exploring how
employee-relevant PsyCap facilitates employee creativity. Moreover, previous research has
never methodologically considered the hierarchy or the possible causal sequences among
hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience. Nonetheless, from a developmental perspective,
an employee who is entering the workplace for the first time might not yet have formed
self-efficacy as a professional or experienced any setbacks in which they would need to
exercise resilience. Consequently, considering the sequence of hope, optimism, self-efficacy
Psychological
capital in
employee
creativity
and resilience in the workplace context, our study specifically focuses on the four different
constructs of PsyCap in a specific order to explain the variation in employee creativity
among individuals.
Hope and optimism as antecedents
Hope can be defined as an individual positive motivational state that is based on an
interactively derived sense of successful agency (goal-directed energy) and pathways
(planning to meet goals) (Snyder et al., 1991). Thus, a high hope employee has a positive
psychological state of development in terms of persevering toward goals and, when
necessary, redirecting his/her path to those goals in order to succeed (Luthans et al., 2010).
In this context, people typically predict that they can achieve their goals by investing
greater effort in their actions and behaviors. People with high hope are generally likely to
invest more effort in accomplishing their goals because they are goal oriented. Hopeful
employees act proactively and tend to be risk-takers when performing their work tasks.
Drawing on Snyder’s (1994, 2000) hope theory, a high hope individual is one who proactively
generates one or more pathways to goal accomplishment in a given situation. When high
hope people face difficult obstacles, they may adopt a positive attitude and develop new
methods and approaches for generating routes to reach their goals.
Furthermore, hopeful employees who encounter difficult obstacles tend to develop
alternative ways, approaches, abilities or pathways for accomplishing a specific goal
because they believe in their abilities, they recover well, and they resolve to overcome
barriers. Roesch and Vaughn (2006) and Snyder et al. (1999) proposed that more hopeful
employees exhibit greater self-efficacy and resilience. Hopeful employees are more likely to
set challenging goals for themselves and self-select, which are regarded as mechanisms that
contribute to self-efficacy and resilience. Avey et al. (2010) also suggested that employee
hope is connected to self-efficacy. The authors argued that highly hopeful and efficacious
employees share the characteristics of internalized motivation and energy or the positive
expectation of success because they believe in their individual abilities (Avey et al., 2010). In
light of the aforementioned reasoning, we argue that hope can be identified as an antecedent
of employee self-efficacy and resilience. We therefore propose the following hypothesis:
H1. Hope is positively related to self-efficacy and resilience.
Optimism refers to the level of employees’positive psychological state for making a
positive attribution about success in the future (Luthans et al., 2010). Employees who are
higher in optimism are likely to have higher resilience and self-efficacy compared to those
with lower optimism for several reasons. Optimistic employees exhibit positive emotions
regarding future expectations (Carver and Scheier, 2002), and Seligman (1998) showed
that optimism has a significant and positive relationship with employees’expected
outcomes. Employees with a propensity for high optimism tend to be more confident when
dealing with their tasks and jobs because they believe that they can take charge of their
own destinies (Seligman, 1998). That is, individuals with a higher propensity for optimism
are more likely to exhibit positive emotions (Snyder et al., 1991) because they feel more
confident that they can accomplish their tasks and targets. Therefore, compared with a
less optimistic employee, a highly optimistic employee performs more effectively on a
wide range of jobs, especially those involving significant interactions with others. Indeed,
optimistic employees have a propensity for learning new skills through more efficient
means to achieve specific goals, and optimism tends to lead to more positive gains in
cognition, coping and contextual resources that promote better mental health when
employees face stressful events (Carver et al., 2010). Moreover, employees who possess
higher levels of optimism are more likely to invest more active effort in their workplace
than those with lower levels of optimism.
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Furthermore, some previous studies have revealed significant associations between
optimism and employee creativity. Sweetman et al. (2011) showed that a high level of
optimism can directly relate to employee creativity. Li and Wu (2011) assumed that
promotion optimism is more likely to contribute to creativity self-efficacy because people are
eager to achieve success. Consequently, optimistic employees will generally tend have
expectations regarding positive outcomes and are therefore more likely have higher levels of
self-efficacy and resilience in terms of their emotions and motivation than less optimistic
employees. Thus, compared to less optimistic employees, optimistic employees who expect
success in their endeavors are more likely to have high levels of self-efficacy and resilience
which in turn significantly predict individual positive emotions and expectations in the
workplace. In accordance with these arguments, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H2. Optimism is positively related to self-efficacy and resilience.
Mediating role of employee self-efficacy and resilience
We argue that to better understand the predictors of employee creativity in the workplace, it
is important to investigate the links between employee resilience and self-efficacy and
optimism and hope in improving employee creativity. That is, we examine how hope
and optimism, as two antecedences of psychological resources, may simultaneously drive
self-efficacy and resilience and enable employees engage in creative activities. We thus
explain how the two types of psychological resources positively impact employee creativity
in work and work tasks via two hypothesized mediators: self-efficacy and resilience.
We believe that employees’psychological resources, acquired through optimism and
hope, are likely to enhance their positive emotions in their workplace for two reasons. First,
according to the componential theory of creativity (Amabile, 1996), employees’creative
resources derive from intrinsic motivation to engage in activities due to interest, enjoyment,
or a personal sense of challenge as well as their hope and optimism about being able to
address future challenges. Thus, employees with higher levels of hope and optimism as
motivation will experience more positive emotions and higher expectations regarding
outcomes. Second, employees who possess high self-efficacy will tend to recognize and
believe in the process and results of applying one’s personal abilities to achieve positive
outcomes (Luthans et al., 2010). Therefore, we argue that compared to employees with low
creative self-efficacy, employees who are high in creative self-efficacy may set higher
creativity goals for themselves, as those who are high in self-efficacy are more likely to
engage in innovative thinking. In addition to self-efficacy, psychological resilience can be
viewed as an important resource reservoir that helps individuals manage continually
changing situations (Taylor et al., 2000; Waugh et al., 2008). Resilient employees tend to
adopt zestful and energetic approaches to life, are curious and open to new experiences
(Tugade et al., 2004) and are flexible, intuitive, innovative, independent, skilled and
confident (O’Malley, 2010). Therefore, we argue that self-efficacy and resilience are
particularly relevant in this regard because they may relate to both intrinsic motivation and
novel thinking. Moreover, self-efficacy and resilience may influence employees’willingness
to solicit and use positive feedback to improve their behavior and creativity.
Building on the discussion above, we expect that employees’perceived self-efficacy and
resilience triggered by hope and optimism will be directly related to their creativity. The
componential theory of creativity (Amabile, 1985, 1988, 2013) suggests that individuals tend
to use their intrinsic motivation and creativity-relevant processes as a source of employee
creativity in the work context. Thus, employees with high levels of self-efficacy and
resilience are likely believe that their feelings of hope and optimism will aid them in
accomplishing specific tasks. Since self-efficacy is based on generative capability through
the use of inventiveness and resourcefulness (Bandura, 1986), employees tend to believe that
Psychological
capital in
employee
creativity
their individual perceived abilities will help them accomplish tasks (Bandura, 1997).
Resilience enables individuals to not only recover from hardship but also persevere in the
face of change and the need for creative problem solving (Luthans et al., 2007).
Subsequently, employee creativity tends to be affected by resilience and self-efficacy.
Therefore, we hypothesize that resilience and self-efficacy mediate the effects of hope and
optimism on employee creativity:
H3. Self-efficacy mediates the relationship among hope, optimism and employee creativity.
H4. Resilience mediates the relationship among hope, optimism and employee creativity.
Employee self-efficacy and creativity
Employee self-efficacy refers to having the confidence to invest the necessary effort in
succeeding at challenging tasks (Luthans et al., 2010). People who possess self-efficacy are
likely to take on challenging tasks and endeavors, invest effort and motivational resources
to achieve their goals, and adopt positive attitudes toward overcoming obstacles and
difficulties (Luthans, 2002; Luthans and Youssef, 2004). Therefore, once an action has been
taken, people with high self-efficacy may invest more effort and persist longer than those
with low self-efficacy (Schwarzer, 2014). As a consequence, employees with high
self-efficacy are likely to believe that their abilities position them to effectivity execute and
accomplish a given task. Thus, employees who are high in self-efficacy are more likely than
those with low self-efficacy to learn by observing and thereby improve their ability to
accomplish their goals (Bandura, 1997).
Along similar lines, research has argued that highly self-efficacious employees are more
likely to seek new and useful ideas to achieve specific goals (Rego et al., 2012), and such
self-efficacious employees are likely to be creative (Choi, 2004; Tierney and Farmer, 2004).
Thus, employees high in self-efficacy have motivational and cognitive resources and are
therefore likely to engage in a greater degree of creativity in their workplace than employees
low in self-efficacy. Accordingly, we propose the following hypothesis:
H5. Self-efficacy is positively related to employee creativity.
Employee resilience and creativity
Resilience refers the ability to sustain and bounce back, and even beyond, when beset by
problems and adversity (Luthans et al., 2007). Specifically, resilience is a blend of cognitive
and emotional aspects, and employees who possess high resilience are likely to effectively
employ their available assets (e.g. cognitive, affective, social, financial, and other positive
characteristics, skills and resources) to mitigate the impact of risk factors (e.g. weaknesses,
deficiencies and other negative factors that have the potential to amplify setbacks) (Masten
and Reed, 2002). Thus, resilience is generally activated in response to a setback and
motivates employee endurance in the face of obstacles. Indeed, an employee’s ability to
“bounce back”from adversity or even dramatic positive changes is particularly relevant in
today’s turbulent business environment (Luthans et al., 2004). Tugade and Fredrickson
(2004) found that resilient employees have the ability to recover from negative stress and
events and avoid stressful experiences in an effective way. Employees high in resilience
may be more easily able to cope with stressful events, stressors and setbacks (Masten and
Reed, 2002) and do not experience negative repercussions as strongly as employees with low
resilience. In short, employees’psychological resilience is a useful means of helping
employees overcome the challenges they confront during organizational change, thereby
enhancing their commitment to the change and their display of favorable change-related
behaviors (Shin et al., 2012).
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Resilient people tend to proactively prepare for hardships and minimize the impact of
stressful events on themselves by using their psychological resources effectively
(Fredrickson et al., 2008). Furthermore, resilient employees are able to overcome, steer
through, bounce back and reach out to pursue new knowledge and experiences and deeper
relationships with others and to find useful meaning in work and life (Luthans et al., 2007).
Subsequently, a number of scholars have argued that employees with high levels of
resilience have greater psychological resources, which can enhance employee creativity
(Cohler, 1987; Helson, 1999). Extending these findings to the context of employee resilience,
we argue that employees high in psychological resilience, compared to those low in
resilience, will respond more favorably to change by using their resilience as a psychological
resource. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:
H6. Resilience is positively related to employee creativity.
Methodology
Sample and procedure
We designed the following three procedures to identify our sample and collect our empirical
data: we conducted interviews with senior managers of two to five business units in five
manufacturing firms to identify relations between PsyCap and creativity; We administered
a survey to a stratified random sample of 20–50 employees at different hierarchical levels in
each business unit (identified using a random number generator and employee rosters); and
we identified managers and their employees who directly engage in creative activities to
improve their operational routines and efficiency in the workplace, and we invited these
managers and employees to participate in our survey via a paper questionnaire or an
e-mailed link to a web-based survey. A total of 700 managers and employees participated in
our survey, and 232 incomplete responses and missing responses were removed from the
sample. A total of 468 employees from 20 business units in the twenty manufacturing firms
completed our survey, yielding a response rate of 66.85 percent. Furthermore, because the
participants were Chinese, we invited two bilingual Chinese scholars to participate in our
item development and questionnaire design process. We first translated all items from the
original English to Chinese, and a second translator independently back-translated them to
English. Both translators discussed inconsistencies and syntax differences between the
original and the back-translated versions. Finally, two bilingual Chinese scholars discussed
and adjusted the differences until they reached agreement on a final version.
Measurement
All constructs were measured with multi-item scales, and all corresponding items required
seven-point Likert-style responses. In our study, all measure scales relied on the existing
literature.
The psychological capital of employees. To measure employee PsyCap, we used a 24-item
scale developed in previous studies (Luthans et al., 2007) that can be divided into four
subscales, namely, hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy. Specifically, our measurement
of PsyCap consists of six items drawn from the literature.
Hope. The six-item scale developed by Snyder et al. (1996) was used to assess employees’
psychological hope. Two items were removed based on the results of the statistical analysis.
Optimism. To measure employee optimism, the six-item employee scale developed by
Scheier and Carver (1985) was used. According to the results of the statistical analysis, three
items were deleted due to low factor loadings.
Resilience. To assess employee resilience, the six-item scale developed by Wagnild and Young
(1993) was used. According to the results of the statistical analysis, three items were deleted.
Psychological
capital in
employee
creativity
Self-efficacy. To assess employee self-efficacy, we adopted the six-item scale developed
by Parker (1998). According to the results of the statistical analysis, two items were deleted.
In total, the PsyCap instrument in this study incorporated 14 items from previous studies.
Employee creativity. It refers to the extent to which an individual employee develops and
applies new ideas and methods regarding products, services or processes at work (Oldham
and Cummings, 1996; Shalley, 1991). The seven-item scale developed by Gong et al. (2009)
was used to capture employee creativity. To assess employee creativity, we employed five
items after deleting two items. Because of the initial construct validation procedure, this
study extracted the scales for the creativity construct by deleting items with a standardized
factor loading below the 0.70 level. All the scales in this study demonstrated reliability
alphas greater than 0.70.
Analyses
Cronbach’sαscale reliability values for the five focal constructs needed to be higher than
the minimum acceptable level of 0.70 (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). Furthermore, since our
data collection relied on self-administered questionnaires from individual firm employees,
these measures may exhibit common method bias. To evaluate the potential for
common method variance (CMV ), we employed Harman’s single factor test (Podsakoff et al.,
2003). A factor analysis of the dependent and independent variables obtained a factor
solution that accounted for 69.47 percent of the total variance. The first factor explained
only 17.67 percent of the variance. Thus, CMV did not threaten the validity of our empirical
results because the first factor did not explain the majority of the variance, and a single
factor did not emerge.
In this study, a structural equation modeling approach was used to analyze our data. We
conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to determine whether the five key measured
variables (hope, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy and employee creativity) were distinct from
one another. The results of the CFA suggested that our five-factor measurement model fit the
data well (incremental fit index (IFI) ¼0.95; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) ¼0.94; comparative fit
index (CFI) ¼0.95; and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)¼0.067).
Subsequently, the structural model was tested according to the hypotheses above. For
completeness, we then ran three competing models against the proposed model to provide
further conceptual and statistical support for our proposed model.
Measurement model
In this study, we employed a 19-item, five-factor, covariance structure measurement model
to estimate the goodness-of-fit statistics, discriminant validity and internal consistency of all
constructs in the model. Thus, CFA was used to verify the convergent and discriminant
validity of all measures. The CFA showed that all scale items loaded satisfactorily on the
relevant latent variables. Table I reports the model fit statistics (w2¼440.64, df ¼142,
CFI ¼0.95, IFI ¼0.95, TLI ¼0.94, RMSEA ¼0.067). Accordingly, all of the scales used in
our study formed adequate measurement models and thus provided evidence for the
construct validity of the measures. In addition, to estimate construct convergent and
discriminant validity, Fornell and Larcker’s (1981) approach were employed to assess our
measurement model. Convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated by a series of
t-statistics representing the items and their latent constructs, all of which are shown in
Table II. The results are shown in Table I and indicate that the measurement model met
both the convergent and discriminant validity criteria for all constructs.
In addition, we estimated the construct reliability for our measurement model, as shown
in Table II. The results showed that the construct reliability for our measurement variables
ranged from 0.80 to 0.93, indicating that all values were greater than the standard
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requirement of 0.70. According to Table II, we also estimated the discriminant validity of
each construct and found that all average variances extracted were larger than the squared
correlations between the construct and all the other variables.
Structural model results
The corresponding hypotheses were examined using structural equation modeling via
AMOS v20. The structural model was used to assess the validity of the causal structures
among the latent variables. The structural model is shown in Figure 1.
We estimated the full model of the hypothesized relationships to test our hypotheses.
Table III presents the empirical estimates for the structural model depicted in Figure 1
above. Similar to the measurement model, the goodness-of-fit statistics for the model were
excellent (w2¼3.082, df ¼143, CFI ¼0.95, IFI ¼0.95, TLI ¼0.94, RMSEA ¼0.067). All paths
listed in Table III were evaluated to test our hypotheses and their significance. The
relationships between hope and both self-efficacy and resilience were significant (β¼0.297
Constructs Items Loading tp
Optimistism Optimistism 1 0.73 n/a
Optimistism 2 0.83 15.45 o0.001
Optimistism 3 0.66 12.91 o0.001
Hope Hope 1 0.79 n/a
Hope 2 0.76 16.85 o0.001
Hope 3 0.84 18.91 o0.001
Hope 4 0.67 14.66 o0.001
Self-efficacy Self-efficacy 1 0.65 n/a
Self-efficacy 2 0.87 14.78 o0.001
Self-efficacy 3 0.79 14.03 o0.001
Self-efficacy 4 0.65 12.10 o0.001
Resilience Resilience 1 0.93 n/a
Resilience 2 0.93 30.57 o0.001
Resilience 3 0.72 19.71 o0.001
Creativity Creativity 1 0.84 n/a
Creativity 2 0.90 25.49 o0.001
Creativity 3 0.93 26.93 o0.001
Creativity 4 0.91 26.17 o0.001
Creativity 5 0.70 17.24 o0.001
Notes: Confirmatory factor analysis: χ
2
¼440.64, df¼142, comparative fit index ¼0.95, incremental fit
index ¼0.95, Tucker–Lewis index ¼0.94, root mean square error of approximation ¼0.067
Table I.
Measurement model:
confirmatory
factor analysis
Variable Mean SD Reliability 1 2 3 4 5
1. Optimism 5.20 0.92 0.80 0.55
2. Hope 5.34 0.88 0.85 0.49 0.59
3. Self-efficacy 5.27 0.90 0.82 0.43 0.37 0.56
4. Resilience 5.26 0.92 0.84 0.09 0.12 0.06 0.75
5. Creativity 4.77 1.12 0.93 0.25 0.29 0.12 0.28 0.74
Notes: The calculated values of the squared correlations of the path coefficients between all possible pairs of
constructs are presented in the upper off-diagonal. Average variances extracted are presented in boldface
type along the diagonal. The discriminant validity of a construct is established when the value of its average
variance extracted is larger than the squared correlation values in associated cells
Table II.
Measurement model
descriptive statistics:
convergent and
discriminant validity
Psychological
capital in
employee
creativity
and 0.113, respectively). Similarly, the relationship between optimism and self-efficacy was
significant ( β¼0.444), but the relationship between optimism and resilience was
nonsignificant. Similarly, resilience significantly influenced employee creativity (β¼0.87),
but self-efficacy did not significantly influence employee creativity. In our empirical model,
we unexpectedly found that both hope and optimism had positive and significant effects on
employee creativity (β¼0.283 and 0.222, respectively).
To estimate the mediating roles of self-efficacy and resilience on hope and optimism, we
followed the approach employed by Baron and Kenny (1986). According to Baron and
Kenny, full mediation exists when the direct relationships from hope and optimism to
employee creativity are insignificant and the indirect relationships from hope and optimism
through self-efficacy and resilience are significant. Moreover, partial mediation may exist
when the direct relationship between both hope and optimism and employee creativity is
significant and the indirect relationships between both hope and optimism and employee
creativity are significant.
The results of the mediation estimates are summarized in Table IV. We estimated the
mediating effects according to Baron and Kenny’s (1986) suggested procedures. Resilience
Optimism Self-efficacy
Hope Resilience
Employee
creativity
Figure 1.
The theoretical
framework
Path Hypothesized direction Estimate SE tp
Hope →Efficacious +0.297 0.064 4.047 o0.001
Hope →Resilience +0.25 0.113 3.148 o0.005
Optimism →Efficacious +0.444 0.071 5.601 o0.001
Optimism →Resilience +0.131 0.118 1.617 0.106
Efficacious →Creativity +−0.057 0.082 −0.928 0.353
Resilience →Creativity +0.38 0.036 8.743 o0.001
Hope →Creativity +0.283 0.081 4.097 o0.001
Optimism→Creativity +0.222 0.091 2.935 o0.005
Table III.
Structural equation
model: path
coefficients
Mediator Relationship Full mediation Partial mediation Not supported
Efficacious Optimism →Creativity X
Efficacious Hope →Creativity X
Resilience Optimism →Creativity X
Resilience Hope →Creativity X
Notes: Goodness-of-fit for the model: goodness-of-fit ¼0.91, comparative fit index ¼0.95, incremental fit
index ¼0.95, Tucker–Lewis index ¼0.94, root mean square error of approximation ¼0.067
Table IV.
The mediation role of
self-efficacy and
resilience
CDI
appeared to play a partial mediating role. The direct relationship between both hope and
optimism and employee creativity was significant when the resilience mediator was added.
Furthermore, the indirect relationships through resilience were significant. Thus, Table IV
suggests that resilience had a partial mediating role.
Comparison of the competing models
By testing competing models in a single study, researchers can develop a clearer
understanding of the conditions under which specific models are appropriate (Becker, 2009;
Viswesvaran and Ones, 1995). This approach is particularly relevant to the current study, as
no previous studies have included all the constructs of interest. Thus, in this study, we
developed two competing models that allowed us to investigate the relationships between
different constructs and extract the most appropriate statistical approach for testing our
theories. To analyze the role of PsyCap in employee creativity, each of the two competing
models was tested using structural equation modeling by comparing a series of nested
models ( James et al., 2006). The proposed model was compared with the competing models
based on the concept of nested models and using the F-ratio (James et al., 1982; Rigdon,
1999). We used the F-ratio to estimate the competing nested structural model because our
two competing models were considered nested, and both were subsets of our proposed
model. Thus, in this study, two competing models were used to analyze which model
produced a better fit. Both models showed a good fit to the data and thus met the conditions
for inspecting the path models.
Our first competing nested structural model assumed that only optimism is an
antecedent factor and that it not only directly drives employee creativity but also indirectly
drives employee creativity through self-efficacy and resilience and that self-efficacy and
resilience play mediating roles. The second competing nested structural model depicted a
different antecedent factor. Here, we assumed that hope is the only antecedent factor driving
self-efficacy and resilience in generating employee creativity and that self-efficacy and
resilience mediate the relation between hope and employee creativity. As presented in
Table V, the fit indices of the competing models are within the target values.
Empirically, measuring different competing models in a single study can help us develop
a clearer understanding of the conditions under which specific models will hold. As shown
in Table V, the fit indices indicated the competing models fit as well as the proposed model.
The CFI, IFI and TLI values were slightly larger in the competing models, which indicate
that the competing models offered a better fit; however, the proposed model had a slightly
smaller RMSEA, and based on this, the proposed model fit better. Competing Model 1
(optimism as an antecedent) had the smallest Akaike information criterion, but the proposed
Proposed
Model
Competing
Model 1
Competing
Model 2
χ
2
440.66 278.95 328.07
df 143 85 99
No. of estimated parameters 47 35 37
Comparative fit index (CFI) 0.95 0.96 0.96
Incremental fit index (IFI) 0.95 0.96 0.96
Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) 0.94 0.95 0.95
Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) 0.067 0.070 0.070
Akaike information criterion 543.66 348.95 402.07
χ
2
/df 3.082 3.282 3.314
F-ratios between models 4.106 3.398
p-value o0.001 o0.001
Table V.
The fit indices of the
competing models
Psychological
capital in
employee
creativity
model had the smallest χ
2
/df ratio. Nonetheless, since the competing models were nested, the
traditional criteria indicating that a model with higher goodness-of-fit statistics, a smaller
Akaike information criterion, and a smaller χ
2
/df is considered superior are no longer
applicable. This is done to decide whether a more complex model is “better”at predicting the
data than a simpler one by testing whether the residual sum of squares from fitting the
simple model is significantly larger than that of the more complex model. The null
hypothesis is that the simpler model is correct and will be rejected if
Fsatisfies 1−CDF(F)oα, where CDF is the cumulative F-distribution function evaluated
at F, and αis some maximum tolerable probability of Type I error. Based on the results of
the F-ratios, the proposed model fit the data better than the competing models since both of
the p-values were significant.
Discussion and contribution
Despite the large number of studies on the determinants of PsyCap, little conclusive
evidence has been reported regarding the theoretical coherence of the “black box”of PsyCap
in exploring the PsyCap-employee creativity relationship in human resources management.
That is, how the four distinct PsyCap components work systematically and are structured to
contribute to employee creativity. Our results resonate with prior empirical studies that
have proposed that the four distinct PsyCap components may not make equivalent
contributions to explaining a specific behavior or outcome (e.g. Madrid et al., 2018). Based on
previous studies and our study findings, we argue that the four subdimensions of PsyCap
may have a particular causal sequence, reflecting the fact that various psychological
resources drive employee creativity differently.
In our work, we proposed a more specific conceptualization of PsyCap and tested
models of the initial framework to link employee PsyCap and employee creativity. In
examining our proposed framework, we found that both the hope and optimism
components of PsyCap have a direct and strong association with creativity. However,
based on our model, we unexpectedly discovered that self-efficacy does not directly
contribute to employee creativity. Specifically, hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism
contribute differently to explaining and predicting employee creativity. Among the four
components, hope has a relatively strong influence on creativity, while only resilience
mediates the effect of hope and optimism on creativity. The findings have both theoretical
and practical implications.
Theoretically, previous studies on positive psychological resources have identified hope,
optimism, self-efficacy and resilience (Luthans and Youssef, 2004; Luthans et al., 2004) as
important facets of PsyCap. However, the few recent efforts to investigate the effect of PsyCap
on creativity focused on the general PsyCap construct and thus lost sight of the effects of the
important components of PsyCap. Zubair and Kamal (2015) argued that psychological
resource theory emphasizes the necessity to treat individual resources as manifestations of an
underlying core construct or an integrated resource set rather than isolated components to
reflect that the resources are interactive and synergistic (Cozzarelli, 1993; Rini et al., 1999).
However, this conceptualization neglects that the focus of positive organizational behavior is
“state-like”or open to development (Youssef and Luthans, 2007; Luthans et al., 2007). The
proposed model in this study attempted to adopt developmental considerations and reflected
the fact that employees come to workplace initially with hope and optimism developed in an
earlier stage of life and then develop self-efficacy and resilience in response to situations,
interventions or stressors. This conceptualization is in accordance with evidence from the
educational setting indicating that trait hope predicts both academic self-efficacy (Feldman
and Kubota, 2015) and that hope and academic optimism predict perceived success, which in
turn predicts teaching self-efficacy (Sezgin and Erdogan, 2015). The results of our study are
consistent with these studies.
CDI
In addition, previous studies on the relationship between PsyCap and creativity used
composite scales to measure PsyCap in order to employ the score in regression analysis.
However, methodological measurement errors were inherently ignored in the analyses.
In this study, we utilized structural equation modeling so that all the constructs were treated
as latent variables, and possible measurement errors were specified and modeled in the
proposed model.
Our model shows that hope, optimism and resilience all have a direct effect on creativity,
but interestingly, self-efficacy does not have a significant effect on creativity. One reasonable
explanation for this is that self-efficacy relates to individual convictions or confidence in one’s
abilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources and courses of action needed to
successfully execute a specific task within a given context (Stajkovick and Luthans, 1998).
A self-efficacious person might rely more on existing motivation and resources or course of
actions that have proven to be effective to guarantee success instead of depending on
creativity or creative behavior. Meanwhile, since resilience is the positive psychological
capacity to rebound from adversity, uncertainty, conflict and failure (Luthans, 2002),
rebounding from unfavorable conditions requires a positive assessment of risks and personal
assets (Luthans et al., 2006), such as a risk-taking orientation and a willingness to adapt and
be flexible, which therefore leads to creativity. The focus of the differentiated effect of
individual facets of PsyCap reveals aspects that we might not otherwise understand
regarding how psychological resources affect the creativity of employees.
The findings also have practical implications. In the context of automated machines,
robots and artificial intelligence are considered possible threats to replace human roles at
work, and creativity has been regarded as an area that still favors humans. The key to
enhancing creativity is to increase the levels of employees’hope, optimism and resilience.
Managers who seek to promote creativity as a competitive advantage for an organization
can make use of psychological assessments for selection and recruitment and consider
coaching or mentoring programs aimed at developing a sense of hope and optimism and the
ability to cope with adversity and frustration at work.
Limitations and future research
Our study has several potential limitations that should be noted. First, this study focused
only on individual employee levels to measure PsyCap and employee creativity. Employee
creativity was measured through self-report surveys, which may not reflect the employees’
actual creative outcomes. Thus, future research could use more objective evaluations of
employee creativity, such as ratings from supervisors or peer evaluations. Second, our data
were collected through one-wave surveys, and there were statistically significant differences
between PsyCap and the employee creativity outcomes. However, our data collection was
based on one period, and time-lagged data collection for variables may obtain better
reliability for the measures. Moreover, future studies could use a two-wave design for data
collection and encourage respondents to answer the questions as honestly as possible by
assuring their confidentiality, thereby enhancing the consistency of the findings. Third,
although we presented theoretical arguments and statistical evidence indicating that four
distinct PsyCap components have different effects on employee creativity, the causal
mechanisms by which PsyCap results in employee creativity should be interpreted with
caution. Future research could address other variables that might mediate the relationship
between PsyCap and employee creativity outcomes. Potential mediating variables, such as
employee engagement, may affect employee creativity. A comparison of PsyCap with
employee engagement in predicting employee creativity would help in understanding the
relative strength of positive PsyCap. Finally, future research could examine employee
innovation ability as an outcome variable and identify the circumstances under which
the relationship between PsyCap and employee innovation become stronger or weaker.
Psychological
capital in
employee
creativity
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Further reading
Cole, K., Daly, A. and Mak, A. (2009), “Good for the soul: the relationship between work, well being and
psychological capital”,Journal of Socio-Economics, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 464-474.
Fredrikson, B.L. (2013), “Positive emotions broaden and build”,Advances in Experimental Social
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Corresponding author
Chia-Han Tsai can be contacted at: markus@mail.ncyu.edu.tw
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