Mind wandering and employee creativity
Description
My research hypotheses are demonstrated followed: Hypothesis 1a: Unintentional problem-focused mind wandering is positively related to employee radical creativity. Hypothesis 1b: intentional problem-focused mind wandering is positively related to employee incremental creativity. Hypothesis 2a: Cognitive flexibility mediates the positive relation between unintentional problem-focused mind wandering and employee radical creativity. Hypothesis 2b: Cognitive persistence mediates the positive relation between intentional problem-focused mind wandering and employee incremental creativity. Hypothesis 3a: The positive relationship between unintentional problem-focused mind wandering and cognitive flexibility is stronger when positive emotion-focused mind wandering is high rather than low. Hypothesis 3b: The positive relationship between intentional problem-focused mind wandering and cognitive persistence is stronger when negative emotion-focused mind wandering is high rather than low. We collected data from Chinese employees in the information transmission industry, software and IT services, and scientific research and technology services sectors through the Credamo online platform. Participants came from the R&D, marketing/functional, design, product, and other departments. A survey data set of 269 employees indicated that unintentional problem-focused mind wandering is related to enhancing radical creativity through cognitive flexibility, and intentional problem-focused mind wandering is related to fostering incremental creativity via cognitive persistence. Moreover, positive emotion-focused mind wandering strengthened the link between unintentional problem-focused mind wandering and cognitive flexibility, and negative emotion-focused mind wandering reinforced the relationship between intentional problem-focused mind wandering and cognitive persistence. The full name of the variable abbreviation： UPMW, unintentional problem-focused mind wandering; IPMW, intentional problem-focused mind wandering; PEMW, positive emotion-focused mind wandering; NEMW, negative emotion-focused mind wandering; CF, cognitive flexibility; CP, cognitive persistence; IC, incremental creativity; RC, radical creativity.