Trait affect and individual creativity: Moderating roles of affective climate and reflexivity

Abstract

We extended the literature on mood and creativity by introducing a multilevel perspective to examine the trait affect of employees. More specifically, we identified group affective climate and group reflexivity as significant moderators of the relationship between trait affect and creativity. Multilevel analyses of data obtained from 306 employees in 50 organizational teams revealed that group affective climate and group reflexivity facilitated the creativity of those employees with positive trait affect. A positive affective climate had significant direct and interactive effects with positive trait affect in relation to predicting individual creativity. Further, group reflexivity significantly moderated the relationship between positive trait affect and creativity. By identifying and examining these contextual moderators, we have highlighted the context-dependent nature of the affect-creativity relationship. Our findings offer new theoretical insights into the critical role of group context in shaping the effect of trait affect on mood and creativity.