Work Overload and Creativity : Goal Orientation, Task Feedback from Supervisor, and Reward for Competence

This study examined how situational factors influence the effects of work overload on employee creativity. Specifically, we examined the negative impact of goal commitment on the relationship between work overload and creativity and how feedbacks from supervisor and reward for competence mitigate the negative impact of goal commitment. To test these issues, we conducted a survey using 221 full-time employees in Hong Kong and used hierarchical regression analyses. The results indicate that goal commitment significantly moderates the relationship between work overload and employee creativity. Specifically, the relationship between work overload and creativity was positive but not significant when goal commitment is low, whereas it was negative and significant when goal commitment is high. In addition, the negative effects of goal commitment on the relationship between work overload and employee creativity was mitigated by feedbacks from supervisors and organizational rewards for competence. That is, employees with high work overload exhibited the lowest creativity (1) when goal commitment is high and positive task feedback from the supervisor is low, and (2) when goal commitment is high and organizational reward for competence is low. These results provide interesting implications about how supervisors’ task feedback and organizations’ reward can mitigate the negative effects of work overload on employee creativity