Is Being Introverted Good for Creativity? Interactive Effects of Introversion, Task Characteristics, and Guanxi Building on Employee Creativity

We conducted two field studies to investigate conditions under which introverted employees exhibited high levels of creativity. In Study 1, we found that task characteristics influenced the relation between introversion and creativity in such a way that introversion had a stronger, positive relation with creativity when task was more complex rather than less. Study 2 replicated Study 1’s results. Additionally, Study 2 extended Study 1 by demonstrating that (a) task characteristics and guanxi building jointly influenced the relation between introversion and creativity such that when task was more complex and guanxi building was low, introversion had the stronger, positive relation with creativity than when task was less complex and guanxi building was low; (b) creative process engagement mediated the contribution of introversion by task characteristics by guanxi building interaction to creativity. We discussed implications of these results for future research and management practice.