Moon Joung Kim
Ph.D. Student, Seoul National University, South Korea.
Jin Nam Choi
Professor, Seoul National University, South Korea.Trait Affect and Creativity:
Mediating Role of Cognitive Styles and Moderating
Role of Group Context
This study extends mood-creativity literature by examining the trait
affect of employees, identifying the cognitive processes mediating
between affect and creativity, and introducing a multilevel perspective.
Multilevel analyses of data on 306 employees from 50 organizational
teams reveal that employees’ positive trait affect (but not negative trait
affect) is significantly related to their creativity as rated by their
supervisors. The relationship between positive trait affect and
creativity is fully mediated by intuitive cognitive style, but not by
systematic cognitive style. The individual-level affect-creativity
relationship is significantly moderated by group climate variables, such
as positive affective climate and group reflexivity. This study integrates
trait affectivity into affect-creativity research that has focused only on
momentary moods or state affect. The present analysis supports the
beneficial effect of positive trait affect on creativity, and indicates that
the affect-creativity relationship can be better understood through
intermediate cognitive processes. Finally, the results highlight the
context-dependent nature of the affect-creativity relationship.