Psychological antecedents of creativity and workplace innovation: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractCreativity and innovation are essential drivers of organizational success and societal progress, as they generate new ideas and solutions. Despite extensive interest, their key determinants remain underexplored and theoretically fragmented. To address this gap, this study aims to examine the factors influencing creativity and innovative work behavior. A quantitative methodology was employed to investigate the hypothesized relationships between the variables. We used an online survey to collect data from 358 gainfully employed respondents in Saudi Arabia, with the majority of participants residing in Riyadh city. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the simultaneous effects of workplace agility, intrinsic motivation, organizational identification, role congruence, and organizational solidarity on employee creativity and innovative work behavior. The t-values for the developed hypotheses are 6.78, 0.43, 6.34, 6.07, 6.43, 5.91, 0.13, 6.43, and 6.61, respectively. The results show that most t-values exceed the stipulated value of 1.96. Thus, significant and positive relationships were identified between workplace agility and intrinsic motivation, organizational identification, and organizational solidarity. In contrast, no significant relationship was observed between workplace agility and role congruence. Additionally, intrinsic motivation, organizational identification, and organizational solidarity were found to positively influence creativity, which in turn enhances innovative work behavior. Thus, an agile workforce would demonstrate affiliation and solidarity with their organization, be intrinsically motivated, and exhibit creativity.AcknowledgmentThis study is funded by Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University under project number PSAU/2025/02/32304.