Turning Work Challenges into Creativity: The Joint Role of Challenge Stress and Problem-Solving Pondering

Previous studies have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the relationship between challenge stress and work creativity, suggesting that the effects may depend on contextual and individual conditions. Drawing on the strategy–situation fit hypothesis, this study examines the joint effects of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering on work creativity and further investigates the mediating role of cognitive flexibility. Using a two-wave time-lagged design with a two-month interval, this study ultimately obtained 568 valid responses. The results showed the following: (1) Work creativity was higher when challenge stress and problem-solving pondering were jointly high than when both were low, as indicated by the significant positive slope along the CS = PSP reference line. The curvature along the reference line was nonsignificant, indicating that creativity increased approximately linearly as the two variables increased simultaneously. Along the CS = −PSP reference line, a significant asymmetrical, U-shaped misfit effect emerged. Specifically, creativity was severely hindered when challenge stress exceeded problem-solving pondering, whereas the decline was less pronounced when problem-solving pondering exceeded challenge stress. These findings indicate that work creativity varies across different joint configurations of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering. (2) Cognitive flexibility mediated the relationship between the joint effects of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering and creativity (indirect effect β = 0.17, 95% CI [0.0923, 0.2931]). The findings suggest that higher joint levels of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering are associated with greater cognitive flexibility, which may in turn contribute to greater creativity. Organizations seeking to enhance employees’ creative performance should not focus solely on increasing external challenges but should also cultivate employees’ problem-solving pondering and cognitive flexibility.