Interactive effects of perceived time pressure, satisfaction with work-family balance (SWFB), and leader-member exchange (LMX) on creativity

Purpose Drawing on role theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a curvilinear relationship between employee’s perceived overall time pressure and creativity. Apart from this, it explores a three-way interaction of perceived time pressure, satisfaction with work-family balance (SWFB), and leader-member exchange (LMX) on creativity. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports a quantitative study of 251 employees from a European company. An online survey was used to collect data. The proposed hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Findings Results demonstrate a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perceived time pressure and creativity. Results further confirm the proposed three-way interaction of perceived time pressure, SWFB, and LMX as joint predictors of creativity. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional research design limits the ability to demonstrate causality. Moreover, the data were collected from a single source causing concern for common method bias. Nonetheless, recent research suggests that common method bias cannot create an artificial interaction effect. Originality/value This study is one of the rare attempts to examine a curvilinear relationship between perceived time pressure and creativity. Moreover, it contributes to the work-family literature by providing the first empirical examination of the linkage between SWFB and creativity. Furthermore, the authors find a three-way interaction between time pressure, SWFB and LMX, and creativity. These findings broaden our understanding of how personal and contextual factors interact to foster creativity.