Job Characteristics and the Creativity of Frontline Service Employees

Abstract

This study investigates the main and interactive effects of job characteristics on the creativity of frontline service employees. Past research investigates the link between job complexity, an index measure of job characteristics, and employee creativity. This study follows a component-wise approach in studying the influence of each job characteristic on the creativity of employees. The approach overcomes a number of limitations such as the sole reliance on the intrinsic motivation rationale. In addition, we conduct this research in services, whereas past research has focused primarily on other settings. The study tests a model with 460 employees from a service setting and shows that consideration of the effects of each job characteristic has an explanatory power beyond that of job complexity. Furthermore, the results show that job characteristics interact with each other to affect creativity. Finally, the results also indicate that the component-wise approach is useful for managers for prioritizing efforts. In particular, the results indicate that to promote creative behaviors, service managers should consider increasing employee job autonomy, variety, feedback, and identity. However, the interactions between job characteristics also reveal that to build an environment that stimulates creative performance, it is important to find the right balance between job characteristics.