Unmasking the creative self-efficacy–creative performance relationship: the roles of thriving at work, perceived work significance, and task interdependence

Abstract

Management scholars have highlighted the importance of creative self-efficacy for enhancing creative performance, yet we know little about how and when creative self-efficacy relates to creative performance. We use social cognitive theory to develop a model identifying thriving at work as an important mediating mechanism, and perceived work significance and perceived task interdependence as key moderators enhancing the creative self-efficacy to creative performance relationship. We analyze a multi-source dataset collected from 795 employees and 149 supervisors at two different time periods. Findings show that the relationship between creative self-efficacy and creative performance is partially mediated by thriving. Results also demonstrate that perceived work significance and perceived task interdependence individually and jointly moderate the creative self-efficacy–creative performance relationship such that the relationship is more prominent when both perceived work significance and task interdependence are high rather than low. Findings from this study shed light on the importance of work characteristics in understanding how and when creative self-efficacy relates to creative performance.