Fun, Friends, and Creativity: A Social Capital Perspective
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Date
2021-04-27
Authors
Boekhorst, Janet A.
Halinski, Michael
Good, Jessica R.L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
Although creativity research has devoted considerable effort toward identifying the antecedents of creativity, there remain important questions about how organizations can foster creativity through social processes. Drawing from social capital theory, we hypothesize a moderated mediation model that investigates the influence of employee participation in fun activities on individual creativity through workplace friendships. We further hypothesize that the strength of this positive indirect effect is weaker for managers compared with non-managers. Our analysis of data collected from a multi-source, three-wave field study (nā=ā163 employees) reveals a positive mediation between participation in fun activities and incremental creativity (but not radical creativity) via workplace friendships. The results further support our prediction that this positive indirect effect on incremental creativity is weaker for managers compared with non-managers. Our findings not only highlight the practical and theoretical importance of fun activities in generating novel and useful ideas, but the results also reveal that the benefits derived from fun activities (i.e., strengthened friendships, incremental creativity) are particularly salient for non-managers.
Description
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Boekhorst, J. A., Halinski, M., & Good, J. R. L. (2021). Fun, friends, and creativity: A Social Capital Perspective. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 55(4), 970ā983, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.502. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Keywords
social capital, fun activities, workplace fun, workplace friendships, individual creativity, managers