The impact of knowledge and motivation management on creativity: Employees of innovative Spanish companies

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence that two variables related to human resources (HR) have on employee creativity – namely, knowledge management (KM) and motivation management (MM).

Design/methodology/approach

The linear regression analyses are based on a sample of 306 employees from 11 Spanish companies belonging to three innovative clusters. In addition, “creativity” is considered an antecedent of technological innovation.

Findings

KM and intrinsic MM are shown to inform creativity, whereas extrinsic MM has no such effect.

Practical implications

Although this study is based on cross-sectional data, the findings might induce researchers to investigate the effects of other HR variables, such as the types of relations between employees and their long-term impact on creativity. Management should encourage KM and intrinsic MM across employees, as the results indicate that tacit KM, explicit KM and intrinsic MM encourage a positive attitude toward creativity among employees.

Originality/value

The main contribution is new empirical evidence on the joint influence of aptitudes (KM) and attitudes (MM) on employee creativity. In addition, the study includes a key measure of employee creativity. The evidence reveals the types of KM and MM that encourage or inhibit creative employee behavior. The results show that once employees have reached a medium-high level of extrinsic MM, creativity will be affected solely by intrinsic MM.

Citation

Muñoz-Pascual, L. and Galende, J. (2017), "The impact of knowledge and motivation management on creativity: Employees of innovative Spanish companies", Employee Relations, Vol. 39 No. 5, pp. 732-752. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-05-2016-0096