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Explicating intrinsic motivation's impact on job performance: employee creativity as a mediator

Jnaneswar K (CET School of Management, College of Engineering Trivandrum, Thiruvananthapuram, India)
Gayathri Ranjit (CET School of Management, College of Engineering Trivandrum, Thiruvananthapuram, India)

Journal of Strategy and Management

ISSN: 1755-425X

Article publication date: 9 March 2022

Issue publication date: 12 October 2022

2276

Abstract

Purpose

Eliciting superior job performance from the employees is a major challenge confronting the organizational leaders in today's hyper-competitive business environment. Though few studies established the influence of intrinsic motivation on job performance, the role of mediators like employee creativity in this relationship is not adequately researched. The purpose of the paper is to explore the mediating role of employee creativity in the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The cross-sectional research design was adopted, and data were collected from 346 full-time employees working in the retail industry in India through an online survey. Analysis of a Moment Structures (AMOS) software was used to test the validity of the hypothesized model, and PROCESS macro was used to test the mediation of employee creativity.

Findings

The findings showed that intrinsic motivation impacted both job performance and employee creativity. Furthermore, employee creativity impacted the employees' job performance. The key finding of the study is the partial mediation of employee creativity in the intrinsic motivation–job performance relationship.

Originality/value

Grounded on self-determination theory (SDT) and componential theory of creativity, the paper enriches the literature by evincing the mediation mechanism in the effect of intrinsic motivation on job performance. Moreover, the current paper is one of the primary studies that explore the mediating role of employee creativity in the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job performance.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge their gratitude to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions to enrich the paper.

Citation

K, J. and Ranjit, G. (2022), "Explicating intrinsic motivation's impact on job performance: employee creativity as a mediator", Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 647-664. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-04-2021-0091

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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