How does Psychological Safety Promote Employees’ Creative Problem-solving? Test of a Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Abstract: Creative problem-solving is a necessary premise and an important guarantee for organizations to implement creative activities, but there is plenty of space for further research on how to improve employees’ creative problem-solving based on the psychological factors. Creative problem-solving is based on the overall framework of the problem and the inner insight of the problem, and it is a behavioral process of conceiving and developing potential feasible solutions and implementing creative solutions by clarifying work problems. This paper constructs a moderated mediation model based on the theories of self-determination and transformative learning, aiming to explore how psychological safety influences creative problem-solving. Through the longitudinal data analysis of 254 employees, the results show that: (1) self-reflection partially mediates the relationship between psychological safety and employees’ creative problemsolving; (2) creative self-efficacy moderates the relationship between self-reflection and creative problem-solving; ( 3) creative selfefficacy moderates the mediated relationship between psychological safety and creative problem-solving. This paper explains and tests the mechanism of how psychological safety influences employees’ creative problem-solving from the perspective of self-reflection, enriches the scope of researches on the effectiveness of creative self-efficacy and provides useful enlightenment for relevant management practices.

Key words: psychological safety, self-reflection, creative self-efficacy, creative problem-solving

Tu Xingyong, Zhang Yiping, Liu Leijie, Jiang Jing. How does Psychological Safety Promote Employees’ Creative Problem-solving? Test of a Moderated Mediation Model[J]. Management Review, 2022, 34(8): 168-179.

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