Openness to experience, job characteristics, and employee creativity: An interactionist perspective

There is considerable ambiguity about how the personality trait of openness to experience affects employee creativity. We investigated how the interactions of openness to experience with decision autonomy, and with task interdependence can influence employee creativity. Analysis of matched data from 217 supervisor–employee dyads showed a direct influence of openness of experience and the decision autonomy and task interdependence job characteristics on employee creativity. Furthermore, we examined the moderating roles of decision autonomy and task interdependence in the effect of openness to experience on employee creativity, and found that openness to experience was positively related to employee creativity and task interdependence was negatively related to employee creativity. Further, decision autonomy positively moderated the relationship between openness to experience and employee creativity, whereas the interaction between task interdependence and openness to experience did not have a significant impact on employee creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.