Abstract
This paper examines how psychological safety, initiative and knowledge sharing behavior contribute to individual creativity in R&D teams from a multilevel perspective. We propose and test a contingent model of individual creativity, reflecting on how team psychological safety and initiative interact with employees perceived psychological safety, to influence how they perform creatively. Data were collected from 352 employees comprising 88 R&D teams at two time points. Hypotheses were tested with hierarchical liner modeling and bootstrapping methods. Results indicated that knowledge sharing behavior plays a mediator role in the relationship between perceived psychological safety and creativity. The cross-level indirect effect of team psychological safety climate on knowledge sharing behavior via team initiative was also supported. Further, results also supported the cross-level moderated mediation hypothesis that team psychological safety climate moderates the indirect effect of an individual's perceived psychological safety on creativity through knowledge sharing behavior. This study shows that group climate did affect the dynamics of knowledge sharing and creativity in R&D teams.