高创造力员工高伤害?道德许可视角创造力与职场不文明行为关系研究

Does High Creativity Mean High Damage?Research on the Relationship between Creativity and Workplace Incivility from the Perspective of Moral Licensing

作为职场最普遍的负向行为,职场不文明行为是指违背职场相互尊重的人际规范,伤害意图模糊的低强度越轨行为。已有研究发现除负面因素之外,积极的工作表现与行为也可能导致不文明行为。而创造力作为一种受到组织鼓励和肯定的积极行为,其与职场不文明行为之间是否存在一定的联系尚待考察。本研究基于道德许可理论,探讨了创造力影响职场不文明行为的过程机制,特别是道德信誉和道德证书两种道德许可的中介作用以及观察到不文明行为的调节作用,拓展了理解创造力及职场不文明行为的视阈。通过对353份员工—同事匹配的两阶段问卷进行分析,结果显示:(1)创造力显著正向影响职场不文明行为;(2)道德许可的两个维度(道德信誉和道德证书)在创造力与职场不文明行为的关系中发挥中介作用;(3)观察到的不文明行为不仅调节了创造力与道德信誉之间的关系,还进一步调节了创造力通过道德信誉影响职场不文明行为的间接关系,即在观察到的不文明行为较多条件下,创造力通过道德信誉影响职场不文明行为的间接效应更加显著。

As a most widespread deviant behavior in the workplace,workplace incivility refers to low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target.In the past two decades,the frequent occurrence of workplace incivility and its negative impact have attracted the attention of researchers and managers.Recently,some research found that besides negative feelings,positive factors may cause workplace incivility as well.Therefore,it remains to be seen the relationship between creativity,a form of encouraged and approved positive behavior in the workplace,with workplace incivility.Drawing on moral licensing theory,this study investigates the impact of employee creativity on the instigation of workplace incivility,especially the mediation effect of employees’moral licensing(moral credit and moral credential)in the relationship between creativity and instigation of workplace incivility,and moderation effect of observed incivility,which is an effective research expansion of the understanding of creativity and workplace incivility.Based on paired data from employees and their colleagues,we find that:(1)creativity significantly positively affects workplace incivility;(2)moral credit and moral credential mediate the relationship between employee creativity and workplace incivility;(3)observed incivility moderates the relationship between creativity and moral credit and the mediation effect of moral credit,that is to say,when observed incivility is at a high level,the indirect effect of moral credit in the relationship between creativity and workplace incivility is more significant.The main theoretical contributions of this study are as follows:firstly,this study examines the impact of employee creativity on workplace incivility,and also expands the positive antecedent of workplace incivility;secondly,based on the moral licensing theory,this study explores the mediating role of moral credit and moral credential in the relationship of creativity and workplace incivility,which is an effective expansion and supplement to the existing literature on the dark side of creativity;thirdly,our paper proposes that the employees'observed incivility is an important situational moderator,that is,investigating the implementation and observation of workplace incivility in the same study,enriching the research on workplace incivility.