Enhancing employee creativity in the Chinese context: The mediating role of employee self-concordance

International Journal of Hospitality Management 30 (2011) 375–384

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International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Enhancing employee creativity in the Chinese context: The mediating role of employee self-concordance Alice H.Y. Hon ∗ The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e

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Keywords: Employee creativity Self-concordance Social context Hotel China

a b s t r a c t This study applies the theory of self-concordance and adopts the multi-level analysis approach to examine the mediating effect of employee self-concordance, a core component of intrinsic motivation, on the relationship between social-contextual factors and creativity using hotel industry data obtained from Mainland China. The hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) results from a multisource sample reveal that the three social-contextual variables (i.e., organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and coworkers support and helping) were associated with employee self-concordance, which in turn was associated with employee creativity. Moreover, employee self-concordance fully mediated the three social-contextual variables and creativity. This study shows that organization environment plays a significant role in predicting employee creativity. The implications of the findings for future research and their practical applications in the hotel industry are discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

As the trend towards globalization has gathered momentum and multinational corporations (MNCs) have started playing an increasingly important role in the hotel industry (Hon and Lu, in press), creativity has become more critical to success than ever before, particularly because of the rapidly changing business environments (Amabile et al., 1996; Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Scott and Bruce, 1994; Woodman et al., 1993). Creativity refers to the development of novel and useful ideas regarding products, services, and organizational processes and procedures (Amabile et al., 1996; Zhou and Shalley, 2003; Woodman et al., 1993). Despite the need for creative workforce in the services sector, little is known about what creativity is and how it may be engendered and fostered in Asian countries. Findings from previous Western literature may not apply to Asia because according to current theories, creative performance of individuals depends on social-contextual factors such as organizational climate, leadership behavior, and relations among individual members of work groups (Shalley et al., 2004; Scott and Bruce, 1994; Woodman et al., 1993). Noticeably missing from extent research have been human resources management practices relevant to creativity, despite suggestions that scholars focus more on social-contextual approaches that can address elemental underpinnings of creativity (Ford, 1996; George, 2007; Woodman et al., 1993). To address this gap in research on creativity, this study aims to build and test theories suggested by creativity scholars that address the relationships between three social-contextual

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factors, i.e., organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and supportive coworkers, and creativity, including an important intervening variable – employee self-concordance – a core component of intrinsic motivation. An assumption underlying self-concordance perspective is that employees who view their work environment as consistent with their own goals or values; they will be more motivated and more satisfied and will perform better (Sheldon et al., 2003). Thus, this study sought to gain a better understanding of the effects of the three social contexts by considering self-concordance as a motivational mechanism. Creating an environment that fosters employee creativity has been the subject of discussions. For many years, both researchers and practitioners have asserted that intrinsic motivation—“the motivation to engage in work primarily for its own sake, because the work itself is interesting, engaging, or in some way satisfying” (Amabile et al., 1994, p. 950)—is an essential determinant of employee creativity (Chen and Klimoski, 2003; Grant, 2008). While researchers have explored the effects of intrinsic motivation on outcomes like task performance, work attitudes such as job satisfaction or organizational commitment (Avolio et al., 2004; Liden et al., 2000), and organizational citizenship behaviors (Piccolo and Colquitt, 2006), there is surprisingly little empirical research that directly assesses the impact of intrinsic motivation on employee creativity in the services sector such as hotel industry (Wong and Ladkin, 2008; Wong and Pang, 2003). This study extends research on employee creativity and seeks to make three contributions to the literature pertaining to the hospitality industry. First, this study examines the relationship between one of the fundamental building blocks of intrinsic motivation –

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Fig. 1. Multi-level model of employee self-concordance and creativity.

employee self-concordance – and creativity. Additionally, while existing research focuses on employees’ self-reported motivational states, this research examines employee motivation more directly by studying the sense of self-concordance and exploring whether social-contextual factors might influence this core motivational component (Sheldon et al., 2003). By more directly studying perceptions of self-concordance, the current study hopes to gain a better understanding of an employee’s psychological mechanism which might influence creativity in the workplace. Second, this study adopts a multi-level approach which considers the possibility that organizational-level variables may influence individual-level relationships (e.g., Bliese, 2000; Hofmann and Stetzer, 1998). Human resources management practices that are purposefully implemented by an organization and which represent employees’ collective beliefs and actions have significant firm-wide implications. These collective values and cultures are best represented as firm-level constructs. In the current study, a multi-level approach allows us to investigate how the three social contexts might influence individual-level intrinsic motivation and creativity. This study draws on the path model suggested by Scott and Bruce (1994) of the social-contextual approach where the authors suggested that three factors that influence individual creativity are - organization values, leadership, and work group relations. Organizational modernity as a key organizational value or norm signals organizational equality and willingness to change (Farh et al., 1997), i.e., creativity is accepted and encouraged in organizations. Second, empowering leadership involves sharing power with a view to enhance employees’ motivation and investment in their work (Kirkman and Rosen, 1999; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990), and third, supportive coworkers embody important elements of social relationships and this relationship provides a positive context for creativity through individuals providing help and supportive behavior to their coworkers (Zhou and George, 2001). Lastly, this study examines the above relationships in the context of international joint ventures in China’s services industry. This is the first paper to apply theories of self-determination theory (SDT) and creativity via employee self-concordance to specific work conditions prevailing in the hospitality industry. Rapid increases in foreign investment over the past three decades have made China the ideal society (and economy) for studying employee creativity. Results of this study are expected to have practical implications for international firms aiming to establish operations in China’s services industry. Fig. 1 outlines the theoretical framework linking the social-contextual variables to creativity via employee selfconcordance, and previews the research hypotheses.

1. Theory development and hypotheses 1.1. Creativity and self-concordance motivation There is a fairly long-standing presumption in the literature that intrinsic motivation is an important prerequisite for creativity (Amabile et al., 1996; Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Wong and Ladkin, 2008; Wong and Pang, 2003). Intrinsically motivated individuals tend to be more curious, cognitively flexible, learning-oriented, and persevering, all of which are characteristics to be associated with higher creativity (George, 2007;Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Shalley et al., 2004). The self-determination theory (SDT) is one of the most widely applied theories of intrinsic motivation (Deci and Ryan, 2000; Gagné and Deci, 2005). SDT seeks to explain what happens when people pursue a task or activity with energy and devotion, in situations where there are no external rewards in operation. According to SDT, the “key to understanding intrinsic motivation . . . is the person’s cognitive evaluation of the rewards, pressures, and constraints within the (work) environment” (Sheldon et al., 2003, p. 360). The crux of creating intrinsic motivation according to SDT is the experience of autonomy—a sense of volition, that one’s behavior is self-chosen or, “literally, self-authored or endorsed” (Ryan and Deci, 2000, p. 69). This experience of autonomy can be generated by job characteristics, such as having control over all or most aspects of one’s work or increased latitude for decisions, but it is often most powerfully produced when people perceive that the work goals and objectives they are pursuing reflect their own deeply-held values and enduring interests (Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001). Sheldon and Elliot’s (1998) self-concordance model, a subtheory of SDT, more fully explores this value-based intrinsic motivation. Self-concordant goals are intrinsically motivating because they are felt to emanate from self-choices that reflect personal convictions and the individual’s true sense of self (Bono and Judge, 2003; Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001; Sheldon et al., 2003). This idea is consistent with the extensive research on the motivational impact of intrinsically-valued goals (McGregor et al., 2006; Shin and Zhou, 2003). Self-concordance is high when people identify with the work goals they are pursuing (identified motivation) or when they find goals highly interesting and enjoyable (Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001; Sheldon et al., 2003). Selfconcordance is low when people believe they are pursuing goals only to obtain extrinsic rewards or avoid punishments (external motivation) or because of coercive social pressure, such as a sense of obligation (introjected motivation). According to SDT, when individuals perceive they are pursuing work goals that reflect their

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interests and values or when they find the task intrinsically enjoyable and interesting, their self-concordance will be high; when they believe they are pursuing work goals to obtain external rewards or to fulfill duties imposed upon them, their self-concordance will be low. Thus, this study predicts that higher self-concordance will be positively related to employee creativity. Hypothesis 1. Employee self-concordance is positively related to employee creativity. 1.2. Creativity and social-contextual factors Conceptual work suggests that organizational context should be a key factor and a multistage process in determining the level of intrinsic motivation and creativity that employees experience (Amabile et al., 1996; Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Woodman et al., 1993). The path model of social-contextual approach (Scott and Bruce, 1994) suggested three social-contextual factors – organization climate, leadership, and work group relations – that influence individual creativity. Following this approach, this study explores three social-contextual factors – organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and helpful and supportive coworkers – that might have relationships with employee creativity indirectly through their capacity to enhance employee self-concordance. 1.2.1. Organizational modernity Employee creativity can be either promoted or inhibited by organizational values and norms implemented by an organization to guide individual performance (Amabile et al., 1996; George, 2007; Shalley et al., 2004). Modernity and traditionality have been identified as important descriptions of organizational values and norms and they appear to be especially useful for understanding how the social, political, and economic transformations of Chinese nations (e.g., Taiwan, People’s Republic of China) have influenced social institutions and other organizations (Farh et al., 1997; Leong and Chang, 2003). In some organizations, Chinese values and attitudes have evolved markedly over the past several decades as a result of revolutionary changes in economic systems, institutional structures, and social patterns (Farh et al., 1997; Yang, 1998). Modernity and traditionality each represent a distinct set of culture values and social mores that can have profound influence on attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors of members of a society (Farh et al., 1997; Leong and Chang, 2003; Yang, 1998). Traditionality has ancient historic roots in China and was the dominant cultural expression for many centuries. In traditionalist cultures there is an emphasis on respect for tradition, subordinating oneself to those higher in authority, rule following, and relationships governed by strict, prescribed codes of conduct (Farh et al., 1997; Yang, 1998; Yang et al., 1991). Maintaining interpersonal harmony and personal modesty are cherished values of traditionalist cultures; there are strong social sanctions that discourage social discord (Farh et al., 1997; Zhang et al., 2003). There are also strong cultural injunctions against those challenging the status quo or criticizing entrenched patterns of behavior; hence, protecting traditions, conservatism, and defensiveness against new ways of doing things are strong social mores, which inhibit employee creativity. On the other hand, values and norms emphasizing modernity favor open, forward-thinking mindsets and endorse progressive, improvement-oriented actions (Triandis, 1989; Earley and Erez, 1997). In an environment characterized by modernity, each individual is assumed to have a set of personal civil rights which include freedom of choice and the right to self-expression (Farh et al., 1997; Zhang et al., 2003). Thus, modernity manifests itself in an optimistic orientation toward the future, a preference for advance-

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ment and improvement, and a willingness to engage in strong, even revolutionary activity to ensure progress (Zhang et al., 2003); theses values promote employee creativity. While organizations often tend to emphasize one dimension over the other, modernity and traditionality do not represent two opposite poles of a construct, and thus, organizations can be high (or low) on both (Farh et al., 1997). The review of research on modernity and traditionality suggests that these types of norms might be related to the level of employees’ self-concordance. Norms and values that emphasize such things as tradition, adherence to rules, following authority, and stability are thought to inhibit creativity while those emphasizing modernity, equality of members, openness, and flexibility to move are thought to promote creativity. One way the latter kind of culture promotes creativity is the powerful signals its norms and values send, i.e., it is safe for employees’ to undertake risky, exploratory, failure-prone activities that are integral to creative performance (Amabile et al., 1996; George, 2007; Shalley et al., 2004). Specifically, this research suggests that modernist cultures are associated with higher levels of employee self-concordance, an important determinant of creativity. Organizational modernity emphasizes individual freedom, accentuates the efficacy of each person, and stresses the importance of self-expression. Because individual self-expression and the freedom to make one’s own choices are important cultural values, employees in these organizations may be more likely to have an enhanced sense of autonomy and self-determination. Employees of these organizations are likely to feel that their decisions to pursue organizational goals and work activities are self-chosen and selfendorsed rather than induced by their pursuit of external rewards or obligations to follow the orders of their organizational superiors. The greater latitude for self-expression enjoyed by these employees may also make it more likely that they will endorse and identify with organizational goals since they feel free to accept or reject, endorse or challenge, embrace or change these goals and work activities. Similarly, employees in these cultures are likely to feel free to leave their organization if they find their employment relationship untenable; so their decisions to stay and pursue work goals and activities are also likely to be perceived as more autonomous and self-endorsed. Thus, the current study expects employees of organizations with more modernist cultures to display higher levels of self-concordance. Hypothesis 2. Organizational modernity is positively related to employee self-concordance. 1.2.2. Empowering leadership Leaders must encourage employees’ motivation to solve problems associated with creativity and allow considerable latitude to employees. Empowering leadership involves sharing power to enhance employees’ motivation and investment in their work (Ahearne et al., 2005; Kirkman and Rosen, 1999). In the current study, empowering leadership defines as the process of implementing conditions that enable sharing power with an employee by delineating the significance of the employee’s job, providing greater decision-making autonomy, demonstrating trust in the employee’s capabilities, and providing employees with the freedom to act as flexibly as circumstances warrant (Arnold et al., 2000). These behaviors are conceptually highly relevant to creativity. Additionally, the concern for subordinates’ personal well-being, a hallmark of empowering leaders, is likely to signal that these leaders will act to prevent or mitigate any detrimental consequences that might ensue from employees’ creative efforts (Arnold et al., 2000). Empowering leadership occurs when leaders foster trustbased relationships with subordinates, communicate a compelling vision to their employees, facilitate participative decision-making, coach subordinates to be more self-reliant, and show concern for

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their employees’ personal problems (Ahearne et al., 2005; Kirkman and Rosen, 1999). There is a growing body of research that indicates that empowering, supportive leaders may enhance their employees’ intrinsic motivation (George, 2007; Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Scott and Bruce, 1994) and this literature also suggests that one mechanism through which this occurs is that empowering leaders foster employees’ experience of self-concordance. For example, research indicates that the compelling visions crafted by empowering leaders create energy and excitement about work among their employees which, in turn, increases their employees’ intrinsic motivation (Bono and Judge, 2003). This vision is also likely to enhance employees’ sense of self-concordance by promoting and endorsing the goals employees are pursuing as meaningful and important (Shalley et al., 2004; Shin and Zhou, 2003). Empowering leaders also show their own commitment to, and identification with, their vision, and work goals and objectives derived from it (Arnold et al., 2000). This leading by example may compel subordinates to follow the model of their leaders by embracing and identifying with work goals, which is the essence of self-concordance. The emphasis empowering leaders place on employees’ self-determination and self-reliance is likely to promote a strong sense of autonomy among their subordinates which existing research indicates is an important determinant of selfconcordance (Ahearne et al., 2005; Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001; Sheldon et al., 2003). Thus, this study expects that one important way leaders can foster intrinsic motivation in subordinates is by enhancing their self-concordance.

similar manner, supportive and helpful coworkers might reinforce the importance and value of work goals by modeling their own identification with, and internalization of, work goals. When one coworker demonstrates his or her identification with work goals, other employees are likely to follow by embracing and internalizing work goals themselves. Thus, this study expects that helpful and supportive coworkers will enhance an employee’s sense of self-concordance.

Hypothesis 3. Empowering leadership is positively related to employee self-concordance.

Hypothesis 5b. Employee self-concordance mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and employee creativity.

1.2.3. Supportive coworkers Coworkers can also provide a positive context for selfdetermination and creativity by a helpful attitude and supportive behavior. Creativity often involves unconventional ways of doing things that require people to put in significant efforts to persistently seek solutions for problems in the face of adversities and obstacles (Zhou and George, 2001). In such situations coworkers may share their knowledge and expertise when the employee is faced with a difficult task for which solutions are not readily available. When an employee’s coworkers are helpful and supportive, it would be relatively easy for him or her to use coworkers as a sounding board for new ideas (Farr, 1990). Helpful and supportive behaviors not only provide immediate assistance but also reinforce the employee’s belief that there is a safety net to rely upon during future creative efforts. This kind of help can prevent errors from occurring because employees have coworkers as a sounding board for ideas. Prior research on creativity has found that team members’ helping and supportive behaviors can also increase individuals’ confidence in their own capabilities, and the ability to change things (Amabile et al., 1996; Zhou and Shalley, 2003). Moreover, existing research indicates that supportive and helpful coworkers can also enhance employees’ intrinsic motivation (George, 2007; Wong and Pang, 2003; Zhou and Shalley, 2003). Woodman et al. (1993) argued that helpful coworkers share taskrelated knowledge and expertise with other team members which increase employees’ creative performance. Liden et al. (2000) proposed that supportive coworkers can enhance employees’ sense of self-determination or autonomy which have been shown to influence self-concordance. Similarly, Chen and Klimoski (2003) found that the perceived quality of interpersonal exchanges among coworkers was related to employees’ perceptions of their own empowerment. Zhou and George (2001) discussed how coworkers could enhance the intrinsic motivation of other employees by modeling their own commitment to creative performance. In a

Hypothesis 4. The presence of supportive, helpful coworkers is positively related to employee self-concordance. 1.3. The mediating effect of employee self-concordance Creativity theorists view intrinsic motivation as the mechanism through which social-contextual factors influence employee self-concordance, which in turn, influences employee creativity (Amabile et al., 1996; George, 2007; Shin and Zhou, 2003). This study has specifically formulated the multi-level model of motivation to empirically examine the relationships between the three social-contextual variables, the individual experience of selfconcordance, and the creative performance outcome. In keeping with the theoretical view mentioned above, this study expects employee self-concordance to be an important intervening variable through which social-contextual factors affect employee creativity. Hypothesis 5a. Employee self-concordance mediates the relationship between organizational modernity and employee creativity.

Hypothesis 5c. Employee self-concordance mediates the relationship between supportive and helpful coworkers and employee creativity. 1.4. Sample and procedures A research assistant from a major university in the Guangzhou area of China was employed to contact international joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNC) in the hotel industry operating in this region. These organizations were invited to participate in the research survey, which was described in general terms as being part of a project examining human resource management processes in MNCs operating in China. Data were subsequently collected from 286 individuals working in 20 well-known hotel companies in the region. Jobs in the hospitality sector require a certain level of employee creativity, such as generating new ideas about work processes, methods, services or products. The research assistant visited participating firms and met their human resource managers who work closely with team managers and supervisors in each organization. The managers were asked to identify colleagues in various departments to whom questionnaires could be distributed. The team managers held positions ranging from upper-level manager to middle-level supervisor. Survey packets were distributed to subordinates by their team managers. Each survey packet included a cover letter explaining the general purpose of the study and stating that participation was voluntary. Respondents were instructed to complete the survey questionnaire individually and to use the preaddressed envelope to return the answered questionnaire directly to the research assistant. The sample size at each organization ranged from 5 to 13, with a mean of 7. In the employee sample, about 53% of participants were male. The age distribution was 57% between 20 and 29, 38% between 30 and 49, and the rest were over 49. Most participants (64.3%) had a bachelor’s degree or higher while the remaining had

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secondary education or below. The majority of the respondents were at relatively junior levels. In terms of functional affiliations, 46% were from marketing and customer services, 27% from engineering and maintenance, 23% were from human resource management and administration, and 4% were from finance and accounting. In the team manager sample, about 80% of participants were male. With regard to age, 10% were between 20 and 29, 74% were between 30 and 49, and the rest were over 49. Concerning educational background, 90% had a bachelor’s degree or higher, and the rest had some college or secondary school level. Regarding the size of company, 8% percent had less than 100 employees, 37.4% had 101–500 employees, 39.2% had 501–1000, and 15.4% had 1001 or more employees.

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overall reliability for the self-concordance is acceptable in this study. Following prior researchers’ steps and the demonstration of the reliability of measure, the current study undertaking analyses without reliance on difference scores, make their use here less of an issue than is often the case. 1.5.2. Organizational modernity This study assessed organizational modernity using the 5-item scale originally developed by Yang et al. (1991) and validated by Farh and colleagues (1997) in a study conducted in Taiwan. Sample items were, “In this company, if a senior person makes a mistake, we can argue with him or her by reason” and “To pursue better employment opportunity, it is okay for us to leave this company.” Coefficient alpha for this scale was .81.

1.5. Measures A seven-point Likert scale was used for all study measures, with 1 representing strongly disagree and 7 representing strongly agree. Two different questionnaires were prepared for team managers and their subordinates. Employees were asked to answer questions covering self-concordance, organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and coworkers’ supportive behaviors. Team managers were asked to rate employees’ creative performances. All measures used were originally developed in English and then were translated into Chinese by two bilingual professional experts. Back-translation method was used to ensure correct translation. The two translators worked independently to translate from English to Chinese and Chinese to English. Then discrepancies between English and Chinese versions were identified, discussed and revised by the two bilingual experts to assure semantic equivalence. 1.5.1. Employee self-concordance Sheldon and Elliot’s (1998) 8-item scale was adapted to measure the extent to which respondents’ perceived their job-related performance goals to be concordant with their own autonomous or controlled motivation. This study examined the data for consistency in self-concordance across the eight items for each employee. The 8 items assessed four aspects of motivation: (1) external (e.g., You are pursuing the performance goal because somebody else wants you to or because the situation demands it); (2) introjected (e.g., You are pursuing the performance goal because you would feel anxious, guilty, or ashamed if you did not); (3) identified (e.g., You are pursuing the performance goal because you really believe it is an important goal to have); and (4) intrinsic (e.g., You are pursuing the performance goal because of the fun and enjoyment it provides). External and introjected items represent controlled motivation, while identified and intrinsic items represent autonomous motivation. Results indicated consistency in responses across work goals, as indicated by coefficients alpha of .75 and .82, for controlled and autonomous motivation, respectively. In some studies (Sheldon and Kasser, 1998), autonomous and controlled motivation scores are computed in addition to a composite self-concordance score. Because this was the first study to examine employee selfconcordance and creativity in hotel industry, this research followed prior researchers’ suggestions (Bono and Judge, 2003; Sheldon and Elliott, 1999), and computed an overall score of self-concordance. Coefficient alpha for the self-concordance scale was .79. Although there are reasons to exercise caution in the use of difference scores (Edwards and Parry, 1993), I believed it was important for the advancement of knowledge about employee selfconcordance and to “operationalize” the construct as it has been measured in previous research (e.g., Sheldon and Elliott, 1999). Additionally, some of the items that made up difference score (external and intrinsic items) are negatively correlated; the reliability problems found when computing difference scores from positively correlated items are not of concern here. Indeed, the

1.5.3. Empowering leadership Empowering leadership was measured by 15-item scale developed by Arnold et al. (2000). This scale includes five dimensions: leading by example (e.g., Sets a good example by the way he/she behaves), participative decision-making (e.g., Gives all team members a chance to voice their opinions), coaching (e.g., Teaches team members how to solve problems on our own), informing (e.g., Explains rules and expectations to team members) and showing concern (e.g., Shows interest in team members’ success). Following Srivastava et al. (2006), this study used 3 items for each of the five factors. The average score of responses from respondents was used to compute this measure. Coefficient alpha was .88. 1.5.4. Coworkers helping and supportive behaviors I measured coworkers helpfulness and support using 4 items adapted from Podsakoff et al. (1997). Sample items were “Willingly share their expertise and knowledge with each other” and “Help each other out if someone falls behind in his/her work schedule.” Coefficient alpha for this scale was .90. 1.5.5. Employee creativity Team managers were familiar with subordinates’ work behavior, and were asked to assess employees’ creative performance on the 13-items scale developed by Zhou and George (2001). This 13item scale has been validated by studies conducted in the Chinese context (e.g., Kim et al., 2009; Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Example items include “Suggests new ways to achieve goals or objectives” and “Comes up with new and practical ideas to improve performance.” Coefficient alpha of this scale was .94. 1.5.6. Control variables To reduce potentially confounding effects, this study controlled for several common background variables known to impact various work-related attitudes and behaviors. At the individual level, I controlled for age, gender, tenure, educational level, respondents’ functional affiliations, and type of industry. At the firm level, I controlled for group size (number of respondents from a group) and firm size (number of employees in a firm). 1.5.7. Analysis Since employees were nested in firms, hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling (HLM) was used to test the hypotheses because it is an appropriate approach for testing cross-level models (Raudenbush et al., 2004). HLM allows an analyst to explicitly model both individual and group-level variance in individual outcomes. The intercept and slope from level 1 (within-group) analysis serve as the dependent variables in level 2 (between-groups) analysis. A significant parameter estimate for level 1 predictor indicates an individual-level effect, and a significant parameter estimate for level 2 predictor of level 1 intercepts indicates a group-level effect (Raudenbush et al., 2004). Since a firm-level variable can explain

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Table 1 Means, standard deviations, and correlations.

the five constructs were treated independently for hypothesis testing.

Variable

Mean

s.d.

1

2

1. Self-concordance 2. Employee creativity 3. Organization modernity 4. Supportive coworkers 5. Empowering leadership

4.67 5.05 4.05 5.17 5.24

0.78 0.85 1.06 0.97 0.91

– .23** .22** .19** .24**

– .31** .29** .33**

3

4

5

2.1. Testing Hypotheses 1–4 – .30** .43**

– .47**

–

n = 286. ** p < .01.

only differences between groups, the first task of a hierarchical analysis is to show that significant between-groups differences exist for the dependent variable of interest (Hofmann and Stetzer, 1998). The interrater agreement coefficients (rwg ; James et al., 1993), for the three firm-level variables – organizational modernity (.91), supportive coworkers (.95), and empowering leadership (.90)–indicated high interrater agreement. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for each of these variables indicated that the between-groups mean square was significantly higher than the within-group mean square. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC[1]) values were as follows: organizational modernity (.20); supportive coworkers (.26); and empowering leadership (.15). Test statistics (F-ratios) associated with ICC[1] values of all three variables were statistically significant. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC[2]) values were as follows: organizational modernity (.63); empowering leadership (.64); and supportive coworkers (.70). Bliese (2000) suggested that ICC[1] values close to .20 indicate a desirable level, and Glick (1985) suggested that ICC[2] values should be over .60. Thus values obtained supported the appropriateness of aggregating social-contextual variables to the firm level. 2. Results Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, and correlations among all the variables. As expected, employees self-concordance was significantly and positively related to creativity (r = .23, p < .01). For the three contextual variables, organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and supportive coworkers were significantly and positively related to employee self-concordance (r = .22, p < .01; r = .24, p < .01; r = .19, p < .01) and creativity (r = .31, p < .01; r = .33, p < .01; r = .29, p < .01). These values are significant but not strong because they can vary based upon the “type” of data being examined. This research involved a multisource sample, respondents responded to items related to self-concordance, and supervisors provided ratings of employees’ creative performance. The three social-contextual variables (i.e., organizational modernity, empowering leadership, supportive coworkers) represent collective perceptions, which are derived from aggregating responses of all respondents from a given firm. Thus, same-source biases should not be a problem in the multi-level design of this study. Next, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on items comprising the five study constructs was conducted using AMOS 6.0. I conducted the CFA by forming item parcels for each construct because the construct of empowering leadership has been shown to have five subscales (Srivastava et al., 2006). The purpose of using CFA in this study was to differentiate the overall measures rather than their subscales. Therefore, the item-parceling method could be used. Following Bandalos and Finney’s (2001) suggestions, the items were randomly assigned to parcels within and across subscales. Results from the multiple indicators of model fit showed that the five-factor model (2 = 428.87, df = 174, p < .001; CFI = .96; TLI = .95, RMSEA = .06) fit the data significantly better than a one-factor model (2 = 3468.19, df = 467, p < .01; CFI = .47; TLI = .41, RMSEA = .20). Thus,

2.1.1. Null model The multi-level hypotheses, which state that the three contextual factors, organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and supportive coworkers as level 2 variables, will be positively related to self-concordance as a level 1 variable. Since a grouplevel variable can explain only between-groups differences, the first step in a hierarchical analysis is to show that significant between-groups differences exist for the dependent variable of interest (Hofmann and Stetzer, 1998). Thus, a null hierarchical model with self-concordance as the level 1 dependent variable was analyzed. The results provided evidence of significant betweengroups variance in self-concordance ( 00 = .11, p < .01). Chi-square tests indicated that the between-groups variance was significantly different from zero (2 = 183.63, p < .01) and justified further crosslevel analyses. In addition, ICC[1] values indicated that 25% of the variance in self-concordance resided between work units in this sample. A series of hierarchical linear models were evaluated to test the cross-level hypotheses, which are described below. 2.1.2. Individual-level predictor Hypothesis 1 predicted that employee self-concordance motivation is positively related to creativity. As shown in Table 1, the correlations also support this individual-level hypothesis (r = .23, p < .01). Next, using HLM analysis, I estimated a level 1 model for the dependent variable with no predictor specified for the level 2 equation. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, the data indicate that employee self-concordance is associated with creativity ( 01 = .44, p < .01). Thus, Hypothesis 1 was supported. 2.1.3. Cross-level predictor A set of intercepts-as-outcomes models were estimated to test the cross-level effects of three firm-level variables as level 2 predictors and employee self-concordance as the level 1 outcome to test Hypotheses 2, 3 and 4. The results indicated a significant, positive relationship between organizational modernity ( 01 = .48, p < .01), supportive coworkers ( 01 = .63, p < .01), and empowering leadership ( 01 = .45, p < .01) and employee self-concordance. Organizational modernity, supportive coworkers and empowering leadership accounted for 18%, 25% and 20% of between-groups variance, respectively, in employee selfconcordance. Thus, Hypotheses 2, 3 and 4 were supported. 2.2. Testing Hypotheses 5a–5c Three cross-level mediation Hypotheses in 5a, 5b and 5c state that employee self-concordance (a level 1 variable) will mediate the effects of organizational modernity, empowering leadership, or coworkers supportive behaviors (level 2 variables) on creativity (level 1 variable). To test these mediating effects, it is necessary to meet three predictions to support a mediation hypothesis (Baron and Kenny, 1986; see Hofmann and Stetzer (1998) for an example using a two-level model). One must establish significant relationships between independent variables and the dependent variable, between independent variables and the mediating variable, and between mediating and the dependent variable. Here, the three contextual variables had to be positively related to employee creativity; the three contextual variables had to be positively related to employee self-concordance; and employee self-concordance had to be positively related to creativity. Given these three conditions, support for full mediation hypotheses would be proved if

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the relationship between contextual variables and creative performance were no longer significant when employee self-concordance was included in the model. If the relationship between contextual variables and creativity were still significant when employee self-concordance was included in the model, support for partial mediation effects would be proved. The first precondition for mediation (Baron and Kenny, 1986), a direct relationship between the three contextual variables and employee creativity, needs to be met first by showing that systematic between-groups variance existed in the dependent variable. A separate null hierarchical model provided evidence of significant between-groups variance for creativity ( 00 = .20, df = 58, 2 = 183.63, p < .01). Calculation of interclass correlation coefficient showed that 33% between-groups variance in creativity existed in the sample. In order to test the direct relationships between the three contextual variables and creativity, three separate interceptsas-outcomes models with each contextual variable as a level 2 predictor and employee creativity as the level 1 outcome were estimated. The results using employee creativity were significant, indicating that organizational modernity ( 01 = .52, p < .01), empowering leadership ( 01 = .69, p < .01), and supportive coworkers ( 01 = .44, p < .01) were positively and significantly related to creativity. Organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and supportive coworkers accounted for 23%, 16% and 19% of betweengroups variance in employee creativity, respectively. The second precondition for mediation was a positive relationship between the three contextual variables and employee self-concordance. Recall that these relationships were supported in Hypotheses 2, 3 and 4 and that positive relationships between these three contextual variables were shown there. The third precondition for mediation was the presence of positive relationship between employee self-concordance and creativity. This relationship was also supported in Hypothesis 1. Thus, the three conditions of Baron and Kenny (1986) for mediation were supported for all variables. To test for the mediation effect specified in Hypotheses 5a, 5b and 5c, three random-intercepts hierarchical models was adopted with employee self-concordance as a level 1 predictor and creativity as a level 1 dependent variable. Examination of the variance component to test Hypothesis 5a indicated that the between-groups variance in creative performance failed to reach significance when employee self-concordance was used as level 1 predictor ( 00 = .05, df = 58, 2 = 61.02, n.s.). Further analysis using the level 2 variable was not justified. Thus, employee self-concordance fully mediated the significant effect of organizational modernity on creativity. Hypothesis 5a was supported. On the other hand, examination of the variance component to test Hypotheses 5b and 5c indicated that the between-groups variance in creativity also reached positive and significant effects when employee self-concordance was used as level 1 predictor for empowering leadership ( 00 = .30, 2 = 168.36, df = 58, p < .01) and supportive coworkers ( 00 = .38, 2 = 182.21, df = 58, p < .01). That is, employee self-concordance partially mediated the significant effect of empowering leadership and coworkers support on creativity. Therefore, Hypotheses 5b and 5c were also supported.

3. Discussion China’s hotel industry has received much attention from year of 2000 onwards (Hon and Lu, in press; Pine, 2002; Wong and Ladkin, 2008); however, few empirical tests have been conducted in a MNC context which pertained in hospitality sector. This research was an attempt to enhance our understanding of how human resources management practices such as organizational, managerial, and social factors foster higher levels of employee creativity indirectly,

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through employee self-concordance in the hotel industry in China. As predicted, results indicated that employee self-concordance has a positive and mediating effect on creative performance. In addition, this research investigated the extent to which organizational modernity, an important cultural variable, empowering leadership, an important managerial variable, and supportive and helpful coworkers, an important social variable, might enhance employees’ self-concordance, and in turn ultimately lead to higher levels of creativity in organizations. The results confirmed the theory of selfdetermination that creativity enhancement depends on a person’s perception of self-concordance and the type of social environment. 3.1. Theoretical implications Employee self-concordance has been characterized as one of the principle manifestations of intrinsic motivation (Bono and Judge, 2003; Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001; Sheldon et al., 2003) which scholars have long held to be a fundamental determinant of creative performance (Amabile et al., 1996; Ford, 1996; George, 2007; Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Shalley et al., 2004; Woodman et al., 1993). The data in the current study suggest that employees have higher levels of self-concordance in organizations with more modern cultures, more empowering leaders, and more supportive coworkers. Since employee self-concordance was also positively related to creativity in the sample, these combined results suggest that enhancing intrinsic motivation is an important pathway through which organizational modernity, empowering leaders, and supportive coworkers can enhance workplace creativity. One of the primary theoretical contributions stemming from this research is proposing self-concordance as a link between the social-contextual variables and creativity. Intrinsic motivation has long been viewed as a desirable quality in an employee, because presumably the heightened motivation coming from a genuine interest in a task will result in positive outcomes such as greater levels of performance, increased job satisfaction, and creativity (Amabile et al., 1996; Ford, 1996; George, 2007; Shalley et al., 2004; Woodman et al., 1993). Intrinsic motivation has been studied more frequently as a cause rather than as a consequence, while this research investigates both relationships with an important intervening variable. The social-contextual environment, described by organizational modernity, empowering leaders, and supportive coworkers, is associated with heightened levels of employee self-concordance. This, in turn, is associated with higher levels of creativity in organizations. In addition, much of the research on intrinsic motivation has measured it using outcomes such as employees’ post hoc assessments of their interest in or liking of the task (e.g., Shin and Zhou, 2003) rather than measuring it more directly. By focusing on employee self-concordance (Sheldon et al., 2003), this study provides more direct evidence of the relationship between intrinsic motivation and employee creativity. One additional theoretical implication from this research is conceptualization of human resources social-contextual variables playing an important role in stimulating higher levels of employee creativity by both enhancing employees’ intrinsic motivation and creativity. The potential for this effect, which has not been investigated in previous research, suggests that human resources management practices can influence employee creativity in multiple ways. If this is indeed the case, then it holds good news for hotel managers and service organizations because it indicates that interventions designed to create environments that foster creativity may have compounding effects on employee creative performance. There may be other channels through which these and other contextual variables influence employee creativity. For example, George (2007) emphasizes the importance of open, flexible thinking for fostering creativity and innovation. Empowering leaders and supportive coworkers, both of which provide

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employees with positive interpersonal relationships, might also be important for fostering actions that encourage this kind of thinking. Research indicates that supportive relationships foster “cognitive openness” which includes enhanced curiosity, a willingness to explore new and unusual information, greater use of open, more flexible cognitive processes, and greater willingness to incorporate novel and even inconsistent information into existing cognitive structures (Shaver and Mikulincer, 2007). A brief speculation here suggests that these same contextual variables might enhance creative performance through a third channel. There may be even more pathways through which social context influences employee creativity. 3.2. The multi-level approach Previous research on creativity and intrinsic motivation has largely focused on individual-level processes. The use of a multilevel approach offers at least three new perspectives. First, previous studies have examined individual characteristics, contextual factors, and intrinsic motivation, and the extent to which these factors may facilitate or inhibit individual creativity. But social-contextual factors that are purposefully implemented by an organization, representing employees’ collective beliefs and actions, have significant firm-wide implications. These collective values and actions are best represented as firm-level constructs: organizational modernity, supportive coworkers, and empowering leadership are included here in a multi-level approach, providing a broader framework to examine their role in the creative process. Second, the multi-level approach highlights the importance of organizational-level socialcontextual factors which show that the social context is associated with positive attitudes toward change. Future research should examine the effects of other firm-level variables, such as a cooperative or collaborative culture, emphasis on personal initiative, and organizational incentive systems on intrinsic motivation (Zhang and Bartol, 2010), which may in turn promote or constrain creative performance. Third, organizational research is paying increasing attention to the role of work context (e.g., Rousseau and Fried, 2001), and the multi-level approach provides an important way to conceptualize and measure contextual variables. In a developing country such as mainland China, firms may differ across a number of dimensions of the social context (Peterson and Thomas, 2007; Lam and Han, 2005). Future research can utilize the multi-level framework to examine important contextual factors that may affect how self-concordance plays out in different organizational contexts. 3.3. Managerial implications According to the results of this research, several relevant practical implications might be worthy of consideration by hospitality organizations if they want to achieve a unique position and competitive advantage in the rapidly changing business environment. First, although emphasis on social-contextual factors may enhance creativity, this study highlights the important role of self-concordance that managers need to consider, i.e., the mechanism by which organizational modernity, empowering leadership, and supportive coworkers are related to creativity. By doing so, managers may be better able to direct the influence of management practices to proper psychological processes (Hon and Lu, in press), and ultimately obtain greater creativity. For example, managers wishing to enhance creative performance must ensure that employees are engaged in tasks that they identify with or find inherently interesting and enjoyable. Ensuring people believe that the organization is progressive (organizational modernity in the Chinese context studied here) is one such lever for effecting change and promoting creativity in modern China. In addition, providing empowering leadership based on trust, autonomy, and self-direction diminishes

the extent to which change minimizes creativity. Similarly, managers wishing to maximize employee creativity should encourage supportive attitudes among members of work groups. Such a context provides both tangible (e.g., advice on specific creativity related issues) and psychological (positive affect from a supportive safety net) advantages (Hon and Lu, in press). However, in real situations, it is possible that some people are not willing to contribute and share their knowledge or expertise with others because doing so may reduce their sense of control or power (e.g., Argote, 1999). Managers need to learn how to encourage knowledge sharing and promote cooperative attitudes among coworkers so that the benefiting effects of coworkers helping and supporting each other may be realized. Thus, by building an open and modern environment, engaging in empowering leadership styles, and encouraging helpful and supportive attitudes among employees, managers will be able to achieve higher levels of self-concordance and displays of creative behavior. The second practical implication is leadership training, as a better understanding of the psychological processes linking the three social contexts can enhance employee creativity. In particular, results from this study highlight the importance of teaching managers in service industries to explicitly discuss links between human resources management practices and employee creativity. Research also indicates that when managers recognize individuals’ unique perspectives (behaviors consistent with individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation dimensions of social environment), the employees are more likely to report selfdetermined motivation (Deci and Ryan, 2000). These studies also highlight the potential importance of self-concordance in organizations, especially with respect to employee attitudes and creative performance. Moreover, Ryan and Deci (2000) found that employee self-concordance was associated with more effective coping strategies. Thus, increasing employees’ identification with their work (by training supervisors) might be particularly valuable in helping organizations manage large-scale (or continuous) change and reconstruction. This is a meaningful result for international managers in global and competitive business environments. 3.4. Limitations and future research There are several limitations of this study that also point to possible directions for future research. First, as in all cross-sectional studies, the issue of causality is problematic. A longitudinal design would be preferable to a cross-sectional design for future studies because the former allows us to trace patterns of development (i.e., the effects of employee self-concordance on creativity) in the same group of subjects and to examine patterns of causal direction and reciprocal relations (Williams and Podsakoff, 1989). Second, although employees’ creative performance was rated by supervisors, measures of social and contextual variables and employee self-concordance are based on self-reports, raising the potential for common method variance. However, the current study features a multi-level design that is consistent with the referentshift model typology (Chan, 1998). The three social-contextual variables shifted the focus from “I” to “we,” representing collective perceptions. Moreover, employee self-concordance addresses individuals’ psychological states; it is logical to collect the data from participants themselves. A good sign is that the rating of employee creativity was collected from immediate supervisors. Therefore, common method variance is less likely to be a threat to the inferences that can be gleaned from the current study. Third, since the sample in this study was collected in only one area of China, one may argue that the theories of SDT and creativity is culturally bound and thus cannot be generalized to other countries or regions. However, many business organizations in China have structured themselves in a way that requires employees to

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produce novel and creative thoughts. Further, this study has covered a sizeable number of firms from the hotel sector. However, future research in multiple organizational settings may increase generalizability of the findings to other types of employees and organizations. Moreover, the model, derived from Western theories, was tested in Chinese organizations. Although previous studies have shown consistent results for the relationship between social context and work performance across cultures (Hon and Lu, in press; Kim et al., 2009; Shin and Zhou, 2003), to the best of my knowledge, there have been no prior empirical studies of application of employee self-concordance and creativity theories in a Chinese culture, particularly pertaining to the hospitality sector. Therefore, this study provides the initial support for applying Western theories to Asian contexts (e.g., China). Future work in other cultures can help verify the generalizability of findings in this study. Despite these limitations, this study makes several important contributions to research on creativity and identifies several interesting areas for future research. More specifically, the present study has added to our understanding of how social-contextual factors associate with individual creativity through employees’ self-concordance motivation. For companies engaged in significant change and reorganization, managers should develop an open, modern, and equal environment and ensure that coworkers are willing to share knowledge and help each other. Managers should realize that empowering leadership is more than simply self-managed work by team members, and employees should be informed that there are avenues available to seek help directly from colleagues and supervisors.

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