The relationship between Psychological Capital and Creativity with Engagement

Abstract

Today, the challenging business environment and the latest technologies are thought to be potential threats to replacing employees. However, creativity is the area that still favors humans. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between Psychological Capital and Creativity, and to test whether Engagement mediates the relationship between Psychological Capital and Creativity in response to recent research call (Yu et al., 2019). The research sample consisted of 205 respondents working in Lebanese private firms. The questionnaire was comprised of established measures relating to psychological capital, employee engagement, and creativity – in addition to various demographic questions. The data obtained were then analyzed using SPSS. The findings showed a significant positive effect of employee psychological capital on creativity. However, mediation analysis using bootstrapping methods has revealed that employee engagement has partially mediated the relationship between psychological capital and creativity. Moreover, the researcher was curious to dig more into the impact of each dimension of psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, resilience, optimism) on creativity with engagement acting as a mediator. Results revealed a positive significant effect of each of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience, on creativity. Moreover, engagement partially mediated the relationship between each of the four PsyCap dimensions and creativity. The author extends prior research and validates more the findings by exploring the relationship between psychological capital and creativity in new non-western context. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines the role of engagement in the relationship between psychological capital and creativity. This research has crucial implications for managers and HR professionals.