Benefiting from creative activity: The positive relationships between creative activity, recovery experiences, and performance-related outcomes
By Kevin J. Eschleman, Jamie Madsen, Gene M. Alarcon, Alex J. Barelka. 2014
100 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Employees have limited personal time to engage in activities that enable them to recover from a demanding work environment and perform at a high level. To evaluate the importance of non-work creative activity, we conducted two studies that examine the relationships between non-work creative activity, recovery experiences, and performance-related behaviours at work. Study 1 included employees who provided self-rated performance-related outcomes, whereas Study 2 included employees with other-rated (co-workers and subordinates) performance-related outcomes. Creative activity was positively associated with recovery experiences (i.e., mastery, control, and relaxation) and performance-related outcomes (i.e., job creativity and extra-role behaviours). The mediating effects of recovery experiences were examined to better understand the underlying processes involved in the relationship between creative activity and performance-related outcomes. Creative activity was found to have both indirect effects and direct effects on performance-related outcomes, but the effects varied by the type of performance-related outcome. The results indicate that organizations may benefit from encouraging employees to consider creative activities in their efforts to recover from work. Practitioner points Organizations should increase employee awareness of the benefits of creative activity on recovery. Many companies already provide information to employees regarding the importance of specific activities (e.g., eating habits, exercise) on physical health. Information on activities that influence recovery � a psychological health consequence � should be included in the informational resource provided to employees. Organizations may consider professional development opportunities for employees that involve creative activities while away from work. Creative activities are likely to provide valuable experiences of mastery and control, but may also provide employees experiences of discovery that uniquely influence performance-related outcomes. Opportunities used by large organizations, such as Zappos Inc., include employees bringing their artwork to work to decorate their offices. Other options include memberships to art studios, creative writing resources, and access to musical instruments.
Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/eecc14f0eef58de418bf5978636bcf959129d0db
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In Clinical Psychology
In Cognitive Neuroscience
In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Citations in the corpus
- Rumination for innovation? Analysing the longitudinal effects of work-related rumination on creativity at work and off-job recovery (2017, background): “Therefore, strategies to improve employee creativity may constitute a viable approach to decrease affective rumination and facilitate recovery (see also Eschleman et al., 2014, for the relationship between creative activities, recovery and performance).”
- Leaving Work at Work: A Meta-Analysis on Employee Recovery From Work (2019, background): “For example, engaging in nonwork creative activities was positively associated with OCBs on the job (Eschleman et al., 2014).”
- Employee engagement and job performance in Lebanon: the mediating role of creativity (2019, background): “Eschleman et al. (2014) conducted two studies to explore the relationships between non-work creative activity, recovery experiences and performance-related behaviors at work.”