When Procrastination Pays Off : Role of Knowledge Sharing Ability, Autonomous Motivation, and Task Involvement for Employee Creativity

The prime objective of this research was to investigate procrastination as a prospectively constructive element of the creative process. Building on self determination theory, this research postulates a connection amongst procrastination and creativity through incubation of knowledge absorption; autonomous motivation and task engagement as boundary conditions. Data was collected from 213 individuals from workforce along-with their immediate managers belonging from a Chinese furniture company; and then analyzed with Mplus. The outcomes of this investigation showed an inverse relationship of procrastination with creativity, while creativity being strongest in the medium levels of procrastination, however, when autonomous motivation and/or the task engagement are strong, procrastination depicts an inverted-U-shaped association; however, in scenarios where both autonomous motivation and the task engagement are low, procrastination has a negative linear relationship. Limitations and future research directions also discussed