Positive Impact, Creativity, and Innovative Behavior at Work: The Mediating Role of Basic Needs Satisfaction

Area of Science:

• Organizational Psychology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Empirical evidence increasingly links prosocial impact at work to enhanced creativity and innovation.
• Self-determination theory provides a framework for understanding employee motivation and well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mediating role of basic psychological needs and benevolence satisfaction in the relationship between perceived social impact and innovative work behavior and creativity.
• To examine the moderating effect of prosocial motivation on the relationship between benevolence satisfaction and innovativeness.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative study with 528 participants from Greece and Canada.
• Survey methodology measuring perceived social impact, prosocial motivation, psychological needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence, benevolence), innovative work behavior, and creativity.

Main Results:

• Perceived social impact and prosocial motivation positively correlate with innovative work behavior and creativity.
• Autonomy and competence satisfaction mediate the link between perceived social impact and these work outcomes.
• Prosocial motivation moderates the relationship between benevolence satisfaction and innovativeness.

Conclusions:

• Prosocial impact at work significantly enhances creativity and innovation through the satisfaction of psychological needs.
• Organizations should foster environments that support employees' prosocial initiatives to boost inventive behaviors.
• Findings contribute to understanding prosociality's role in workplace creativity and innovation.