IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobhdp/v121y2013i2p141-157.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Workplace duties or opportunities? Challenge stressors, regulatory focus, and creativity

Author

Listed:
  • Sacramento, Claudia A.
  • Fay, Doris
  • West, Michael A.

Abstract

Previous research has produced contradictory findings about the impact of challenge stressors on individual and team creativity. Based on the challenge–hindrance stressors framework (LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005) and on regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997), we argue that the effect of challenge stressors on creativity is moderated by regulatory focus. We hypothesize that while promotion focus strengthens a positive relationship between challenge stressors and creativity, prevention focus reinforces a negative relationship. Experimental data showed that high demands led to better results in a creative insight task for individuals with a strong trait promotion focus, and that high demands combined with an induced promotion focus led to better results across both creative generation and insight tasks. These results were replicated in a field R&D sample. Furthermore, we found that team promotion focus moderated the effect of challenge stressors on team creativity. The results offer both theoretical insights and suggest practical implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Sacramento, Claudia A. & Fay, Doris & West, Michael A., 2013. "Workplace duties or opportunities? Challenge stressors, regulatory focus, and creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 141-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:121:y:2013:i:2:p:141-157
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.01.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597813000216
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.01.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Crowe, Ellen & Higgins, E. Tory, 1997. "Regulatory Focus and Strategic Inclinations: Promotion and Prevention in Decision-Making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 117-132, February.
    2. Levine, John M. & Higgins, E. Tory & Choi, Hoon-Seok, 2000. "Development of Strategic Norms in Groups," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 88-101, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Montani, Francesco & Dagenais-Desmarais, Véronique, 2018. "Unravelling the relationship between role overload and organizational citizenship behaviour: A test of mediating and moderating effects," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 757-768.
    2. Ginevičius Tomas, 2016. "Options for quantitative assessment of types of commercial real estate leases," Engineering Management in Production and Services, Sciendo, vol. 8(1), pages 55-61, March.
    3. Federico Contu & Daniela Di Santo & Conrad Baldner & Antonio Pierro, 2023. "Examining the Interaction between Perceived Cultural Tightness and Prevention Regulatory Focus on Life Satisfaction in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-10, January.
    4. Rayburn, Steven W. & Badrinarayanan, Vishag & Anderson, Sidney T. & Gupta, Aditya, 2021. "Continuous techno-training and business-to-business salesperson success: How boosting techno-efficacy enhances sales effort and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 66-78.
    5. Shao, Yan & Nijstad, Bernard A. & Täuber, Susanne, 2019. "Creativity under workload pressure and integrative complexity: The double-edged sword of paradoxical leadership," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 7-19.
    6. Chang, Yu-Yu & Shih, Hui-Yu & Lin, Bou‐Wen, 2023. "Work curiosity and R&D professionals’ creative performance: Scientists vs. engineers," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    7. Lim, Grace J.H. & Pitesa, Marko & Vadera, Abhijeet K., 2023. "Cheating constraint decisions and discrimination against workers with lower financial standing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    8. Montani, Francesco & Courcy, François & Vandenberghe, Christian, 2017. "Innovating under stress: The role of commitment and leader-member exchange," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-13.
    9. Pedro A. Díaz-Fúnez & Carmen M. Salvador-Ferrer & Natalia García-Tortosa & Miguel A. Mañas-Rodríguez, 2021. "Are Job Demands Necessary in the Influence of a Transformational Leader? The Moderating Effect of Role Conflict," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-12, March.
    10. Ross Gilbert, Jonathan & Krush, Michael T. & Trainor, Kevin J. & Wayment, Heidi A., 2022. "The (quiet) ego and sales: Transcending self-interest and its relationship with adaptive selling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 326-338.
    11. Ryan Mullins & Bulent Menguc & Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos, 2020. "Antecedents and performance outcomes of value-based selling in sales teams: a multilevel, systems theory of motivation perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 1053-1074, November.
    12. Razana Juhaida Johari & Nordayana Sri Ridzoan & Arumega Zarefar, 2019. "The Influence of Work Overload, Time Pressure and Social Influence Pressure on Auditors¡¯ Job Performance," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 88-106, May.
    13. Sok, Keo Mony & Danaher, Tracey S. & Sok, Phyra, 2023. "Multiple psychological climates and employee self-regulatory focus: Implications for frontline employee work behavior and service performance," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 228-246.
    14. Guidice, Rebecca M. & Mero, Neal P. & Matthews, Lucy M. & Greene, Juanne V., 2016. "The influence of individual regulatory focus and accountability form in a high performance work system," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3332-3340.
    15. Yongbo Sun & Xiaojuan Hu & Yixin Ding, 2019. "Learning or Relaxing: How Do Challenge Stressors Stimulate Employee Creativity?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, March.
    16. Sarah Hudson & Helena González-Gómez, 2021. "Can impostors thrive at work? The impostor phenomenon's role in work and career outcomes," Post-Print hal-03330558, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Woolley, Anita Williams & Bear, Julia B. & Chang, Jin Wook & DeCostanza, Arwen Hunter, 2013. "The effects of team strategic orientation on team process and information search," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 114-126.
    2. Tsang-Kai Hung & Chih-Hung Wang & Mu Tian & Ya-Jiun Yang, 2020. "A Cross-Level Investigation of Team-Member Exchange on Team and Individual Job Crafting with the Moderating Effect of Regulatory Focus," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-20, March.
    3. Khajehzadeh, Saman & Oppewal, Harmen & Tojib, Dewi, 2014. "Consumer responses to mobile coupons: The roles of shopping motivation and regulatory fit," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2447-2455.
    4. Beersma, Bianca & Homan, Astrid C. & Van Kleef, Gerben A. & De Dreu, Carsten K.W., 2013. "Outcome interdependence shapes the effects of prevention focus on team processes and performance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 194-203.
    5. Cantor, David E. & Blackhurst, Jennifer V. & Cortes, Juan David, 2014. "The clock is ticking: The role of uncertainty, regulatory focus, and level of risk on supply chain disruption decision making behavior," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 159-172.
    6. Zou, Lili Wenli & Chan, Ricky Y.K., 2019. "Why and when do consumers perform green behaviors? An examination of regulatory focus and ethical ideology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 113-127.
    7. Bhargave, Rajesh & Chakravarti, Amitav & Guha, Abhijit, 2015. "Two-stage decisions increase preference for hedonic options," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64119, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Emich, Kyle J. & Vincent, Lynne C., 2020. "Shifting focus: The influence of affective diversity on team creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 24-37.
    9. Wesemann, Henrik & Wincent, Joakim, 2021. "A whole new world: Counterintuitive crowdfunding insights for female founders," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    10. Levine, John M. & Higgins, E. Tory & Choi, Hoon-Seok, 2000. "Development of Strategic Norms in Groups," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 88-101, May.
    11. Ricky Y. K. Chan, 2021. "Do chief information officers matter for sustainable development? Impact of their regulatory focus on green information technology strategies and corporate performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 2523-2534, July.
    12. Amaral, Christopher & Kolsarici, Ceren, 2020. "The financial advice puzzle: The role of consumer heterogeneity in the advisor choice," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Oana Buliga & Christian W. Scheiner & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2016. "Business model innovation and organizational resilience: towards an integrated conceptual framework," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(6), pages 647-670, August.
    14. Sharath Sasidharan & Radhika Santhanam & Daniel J. Brass & Vallabh Sambamurthy, 2012. "The Effects of Social Network Structure on Enterprise Systems Success: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(3-part-1), pages 658-678, September.
    15. Poels, Karolien & Dewitte, Siegfried, 2008. "Hope and self-regulatory goals applied to an advertising context: Promoting prevention stimulates goal-directed behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 1030-1040, October.
    16. Chung-Chau Chang & Bo-Chi Lin & Shin-Shin Chang, 2011. "The relative advantages of benefit overlap versus category similarity in brand extension evaluation: The moderating role of self-regulatory focus," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 391-404, November.
    17. Tine Bock & Patrick Kenhove, 2010. "Consumer Ethics: The Role of Self-Regulatory Focus," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(2), pages 241-255, December.
    18. Choi, Hoon-Seok & Thompson, Leigh, 2005. "Old wine in a new bottle: Impact of membership change on group creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 121-132, November.
    19. Ophélie Mugel & Madeleine Besson & Patricia Gurviez, 2013. "Le rôle de l’orientation régulatrice chronique sur les représentations du lien santé-alimentation et les comportements alimentaires: une étude exploratoire," Post-Print hal-01385136, HAL.
    20. Johnson, Russell E. & King, Danielle D. & (Joanna) Lin, Szu-Han & Scott, Brent A. & Jackson Walker, Erin M. & Wang, Mo, 2017. "Regulatory focus trickle-down: How leader regulatory focus and behavior shape follower regulatory focus," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 29-45.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:121:y:2013:i:2:p:141-157. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/obhdp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.