개인창의성은 조직의 혁신, 경쟁력, 장기적인 성공에 있어서 매우 중요한 요소이다. 창의성 연구자들은 개인특성(예, 창의적인 성격, 개방성)과 조직의 환경적인 특성(예, 작업환경, 리더십)이 개인창의성과 관련성을 갖고 있음을 밝히고 있다. 특히, 개인창의성에 영향을 미치는 중요한 독립변인 중의 하나는 직무특성이다. Hackman and Oldham(1980)에 따르면, 직무자율성, 과업정체성, 과업중요성, 기술다양성, 직무피드백 등 다섯 가지의 직무특성이 존재한다. 본 연구는 이러한 다섯 가지의 직무특성이 개인창의성에 어떤 영향을 미치는지, 그리고 종업원의 선행적 행동이 직무특성과 개인창의성 간의 관계를 유미하게 매개하는지를 검증하였다. 설문을 통하여 자료를 수집하였는데, 설문 대상은 14개 회사의 연구개발부서 내 종업원으로, 154쌍(상사-부하)의 설문을 수거하였다. 종업원은 직무특성과 선행적 행동을 보고하였고, 상사는 종업원의 개인창의성 정도를 평가하였다. 연구가설을 검증하기 위하여, AMOS 4.0을 사용하여 구조방정식모형을 테스트하였다. 분석 결과, 다섯 가지 직무특성이 개인창의성에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다는 것을 발견하였다. 아울러, 그러한 직무특성이 종업원의 선행적 행동에 긍정적인 영향을 미치고, 선행적 행동은 개인창의성에 긍정적인 영향을 미쳤다. 마지막으로, 종업원의 선행적 행동이 직무특성과 개인창의성 간의 관계를 완전매개하는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 이론적인 측면에 여러 가지 유의미한 함의가 있다. 첫째, 이 연구는 다양한 직무특성과 개인창의성 간의 관계를 검증함으로써 창의성 연구에 기여하고 있다. 이러한 접근은 창의성 연구에서 매우 드물었다. 둘째, 본 연구는 직무특성이 개인창의성에 영향을 미치는 매개과정을 밝혀냈다. 끝으로 본 연구의 결과는 직무설계로 개인창의성을 향상시킬 수 있고, 개인창의성을 향상시키기 위해서 종업원의 선행적 행동을 촉진하는 직무환경을 제공할 필요가 있다는 실천적인 함의를 제공해 준다.
Employee creativity can help organizations have competitive advantages for an organizational innovation, survival and long term success. Creativity researchers have concentrated on examining the antecedents that influence employee creativity in an organizational context. Specifically, they have found that personal characteristics (e.g., creative personality and openness) and organizational context (e.g., work environment and leadership) are associated with individual creativity. In particular, it is notable that one of the antecedents of individual creativity is job characteristics. However, less research has focused on examining how various job characteristics influence individual creativity. According to Hackman & Oldham(1980), there are five job characteristics: job autonomy, task identity, task importance, skill variety, and feedback. Researchers have found that those five job characteristics are associated with turnover intention, organizational citizenship behaviors, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. However, no research has examined how those five job characteristics influence individual creativity. In addition, creativity researchers have paid less attention to examine the underlying process by which job characteristics influence individual creativity. To address theses issue, we examined how the five job characteristics influence individual creativity, how job characteristics affect proactive behaviors, and how proactive behaviors influence individual creativity. We also directly test whether proactive behaviors can mediate the relationships between job characteristics and individual creativity. We collected data from 154 employee-supervisor pairs from research and development(R&D) departments in 14 organizations in South Korea. The employees reported on their job characteristics and proactive behaviors, while the supervisors assessed the employees`` individual creativity. To test the research hypotheses, we conducted structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 4.0. The results show that overall the proposed research model fits to the data well based on various fix indices such as CFI, RMSEA, and GFI. Specifically, we found a positive relationship between individual creativity and the five job characteristics. In addition, the results revealed that job characteristics were significantly associated with proactive behaviors which in turn significantly influenced individual creativity. Finally, proactive behaviors fully mediated the relationship between individual creativity and job characteristics. This study has distinct implications in theory. For example, the present study can contribute to creativity research by examining the effects of various job characteristics on individual creativity. This approach has seldom been used in the literature. Second, it identified an underlying process that related job characteristics to individual creativity. Findings in this study have also some practical implications in organizations. In R&D departments, the results of this study can be adopted to enhance individual creativity by designing jobs that place significance on pertinent job dimensions (i.e., job autonomy, task identity, task importance, skill variety, and feedback). In addition, R&D departments that aim to encourage individual creativity need to provide an environment that encourages proactive employees.