Unlocking creativity in healthcare: Work Orientation and Work Creativity: Mediating effect of Intrinsic Motivation and Moderating effect of Job Autonomy

Abstract

Purpose: The main concern of this research is to explore the relationship between work orientation and employee creativity. Further, this study examined the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation and moderating effect of job autonomy in the healthcare industry.

Methodology/approach: A time-lagged, multi-wave survey design was adopted for data collection from 307 full-time healthcare employees to improve the methodological rigor and reduce the common method bias. The established measurement scales were used, and the hypotheses were tested through regression-based mediation and moderation analyses using Hayes’ PROCESS macro.

Findings: The findings indicate that work orientation significantly influence the employee creativity. Intrinsic motivation mediates the link between work orientation and work creativity. Moreover, job autonomy moderates the association among work orientation and work creativity.

Practical implications: The results indicate that healthcare administrators should to create an atmosphere where employees find their work meaningful, increase intrinsic motivation and also develop jobs with more autonomy in order to facilitate creativity and innovations among the staff.

Originality/value: This study extends the work orientation literature by empirically validating a moderated mediation model in a healthcare context, thereby integrating individual meaning-based orientations, motivational mechanisms, and contextual work conditions into a unified explanatory framework for employee creativity.