Research On The Impact Of Work Pressure On Organizational Creativity And Its Mechanism

The emerging of cloud computing and big data technology raises a grand challenge to scholars and managers in the management area: how to facilitate firms’ creativity under pressure? The cloud computing and big data analytics produce high-volume and rapid-changing demands, leading firms to the VUCA(Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. Organizational creativity thus becomes a crucial factor in this changing market. Firms should engage in creative processes which can help them obtain competitive advantage. However, firms in this new era can not bear the slow and comfortable creative processes. They have to complete the new product and service creation under high work pressure, including time urgency and work load. From the organizational behavior and human resource management perspective, organizations should reconsider the relationships between work pressure and organizational creativity, and design effective incentive systems to utilize work pressure for activating employee creativity in organizations.Drawing from the cognitive activation theory of stress, this study constructs a research model focusing on the effects of work pressure on organizational creativity. Based on literature review, this study first illustrates the theory ’s basic assumptions and refines the definitions of work pressure, organizational creativity, creative behavior expectancy and organizational support. In the second step, this study proposes hypotheses, including the serial multiple mediator model which is used to explain why work pressure affects organizational creativity. In addition, this study builds a moderated mediation model to explain the boundary condition of the effects of work pressure on organizational creativity.This study used multi-method research design, using surveys to test hypotheses and adding experiments and case studies as supplementary analysis. In surveys, this study collected 640 samples from technical employees in 6 Chinese public institutions and employed the hierarchical regression and bootstrapping to test hypotheses. In experiments, this study designed a brainstorm-based creativity experiment and used the between-group design to randomly assign participants in three groups induced by different stressors. This study obtained 106 participants including undergraduates and graduates, approached ANOVA to test hypotheses. In case studies, this study collected 10 top managers’ secondary data from the Harvard Business Review. This case study used a tool of computer assisted qualitative data analysis named MAXQDA 12 to analyze cases. The case study obtained 156 accounts and used several illustrations to explain how work pressure affects organizational creativity through different paths.The empirical results show the relationships between work pressure and organizational creativity. Challenge stressors are positively and significantly related to organizational creativity. Creative behavior expectancy mediates the relationships between work pressure and organizational creativity. That is, challenge stressors increase organizational creativity through creative necessity, creative probability, and affective value, and these three variables then increase work engagement, thus increasing organizational creativity. Organizational support attenuates the positive effects of challenge stressors on work engagement, whereas, organizational support increases the positive effects of work engagement on organizational creativity. The empirical results show complex relationships between hindrance stressors and o rganizational creativity. Hindrance stressors have a week but significant and negative effect on organizational creativity. Hindrance stressors affect organizational creativity through “creative probability-work engagement” and “affective value-work engagement” paths.Based on these findings, this study discusses the practical implications for work designs, organizational supportive systems and employee work pressure management.