Spotlight on the Effect of Workplace Ostracism on Creativity: A Social Cognitive Perspective

Abstract

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Drawing on social cognitive theory, we propose a moderated-mediation model to examine when and why workplace ostracism impairs employee creativity in China. We collected 195 valid questionnaires with a two-wave employee-supervisor dyadic research design from one large Chinese company. Results indicate workplace ostracism affects employee creativity negatively. Moreover, the negative effect of workplace ostracism on employee creativity is not only mediated by employee creative self-efficacy (CSE), but the mediation effects of employee CSE are also found to be stronger when employee collectivism orientation is high. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords

• workplace ostracism
• creativity
• creative self-efficacy (CSE)
• collectivism orientation
• organization psychology