Investigating the Relationship Between Work Pressure and Employee Creativity: The Mediating Role of Motivation; A Case Study of Health Department Staff at Razavi Hospital in Mashhad
Keywords:
Work pressure, Employee motivation, Employee creativity, Healthcare workers, Razavi HospitalAbstract
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between work pressure and employee creativity with emphasis on the mediating role of motivation among health department staff at Razavi Hospital in Mashhad. This applied study employed a descriptive-survey and correlational design. The statistical population consisted of 1,400 health department employees at Razavi Hospital in Mashhad in 2024, from whom 301 participants were selected through convenience sampling based on Cochran’s formula. Data were collected using the Work Pressure Questionnaire developed by Yesuf et al., the Employee Creativity Questionnaire developed by Yesuf et al., and the Employee Motivation Questionnaire developed by Liu et al. The validity of the instruments was examined through content validity and confirmatory factor analysis, and their reliability was confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability coefficients. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 24 and SmartPLS through structural equation modeling. The inferential results indicated that work pressure had a positive and significant effect on employee creativity (β=0.650, t=13.182). Work pressure also had a positive and significant effect on employee motivation (β=0.835, t=54.067). In addition, employee motivation had a positive and significant effect on employee creativity (β=0.274, t=5.302). The bootstrap results further confirmed the significant mediating role of motivation in the relationship between work pressure and employee creativity (β=0.229, t=5.282). Accordingly, all research hypotheses were supported at the 95% confidence level. The findings demonstrated that work pressure, when properly managed and accompanied by motivational resources, can enhance employee creativity through increased motivation. Therefore, managers of healthcare organizations can promote creativity, improve employee performance, and enhance the quality of health services by ensuring fair workload distribution, reducing exhausting job pressures, strengthening intrinsic motivation, providing organizational support, involving employees in decision-making, and improving reward systems.
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