Unlocking and closing the gender gap in creative performance: A multilevel model

Abstract

Building upon and extending the interactionist perspective of creativity, social role theory, and role congruity theory, we develop an integrated multilevel model to examine gender differences in creative self-efficacy and determine how the contextual factor of team psychological safety shapes employees' creative self-efficacy and, through this motivational mechanism, influences their creative performance. Using data from a sample of 335 employees from a large food manufacturer collected over three time periods, we theorize and demonstrate the pivotal role of creative self-efficacy in explaining gender differences in creative performance. Our findings indicate that women may have lower creative self-efficacy than men in organizational contexts. However, team psychological safety restores parity between men and women through a cross-level moderated mediation, such that psychological safety has a stronger effect on women's creative self-efficacy than that of men, resulting in increased creative performance for women. These findings offer interesting implications for research on gender differences in creative performance and for human resources by pinpointing methods of bridging the existent differences in the creative self-efficacy of men and women in organizations.