Employee Creativity during COVID-19: Role of Psychological Capital and Employee Empowerment

Abstract

Employee creativity remains an essential aspect of employee work engagement since the inception of COVID-19. Due to the ramifications of the impending lockdown, physical workplaces have been transformed into virtual setting. Thereby, the prevailing situation emphasizes   self-initiated actions which employees must undertake by utilizing their own creativity during COVID-19 to achieve their assigned tasks.  Considering the job demands and available resources, this study investigates the link between psychological capital and employee creativity with the mediation of employee empowerment. On the basis of the data collected from university staff and faculty in Lahore, Pakistan, a quantitative research approach has been employed that uses the Hayes process model for analysis to obtain the results. The results demonstrate that psychological capital positively relates to employee creativity, while employee empowerment mediates this relationship. Furthermore, this study suggests that employee empowerment would positively explain the relationship, thus making it more suitable for employees to adopt creative ways to do their work. This research further probes the organizational design work that liberates employs to use their creative behavior to give better work related performance which impacts and modifies certain aspects of their work. Thus, enabling them to perform in unprecedented challenging situations. Keywords: COVID-19, employee creativity, employee empowerment, psychological capital, virtual settings