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Article

After-Hours Work Challenges and Employee Creativity: A Moderated Mediation Model

by
Fengmei Ren
1,
Yuerong Zhou
2,* and
Zhigang Song
3
1
School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
2
School of Foreign Languages and Business, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen 518055, China
3
Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2024, 16(17), 7610; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177610 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 3 July 2024 / Revised: 17 August 2024 / Accepted: 17 August 2024 / Published: 2 September 2024
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Abstract

:
Based on the social exchange theory, this paper constructs a moderated mediation model to explore the influence of after-hours work challenges after-hours on employee creativity. By collecting 268 questionnaires from Chinese employees and employing hierarchical regression and bootstrapping to test the hypotheses, the results show that after-hours work challenges can enhance employee creativity by improving their perceived insider status. Servant leadership, as a moderator, strengthens both the direct effect of after-hours work challenges on perceived insider status and the indirect effect on employee creativity. This research enriches the creativity and work design literature by addressing the previously unexplored relationship between after-hours work challenges and employee creativity. The study reveals that after-hours work assigned to employees needs to be challenging so that employees can experience personal development through completing it. Additionally, leaders’ support and care during the after-hours work process are essential.

1. Introduction

Employee creativity, defined as the production of novel and useful ideas related to products, processes, or services by individuals [1], is a significant means for organizations to gain a competitive advantage and sustain survival in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment [2]. Consequently, scholars have extensively explored the organizational factors influencing employee creativity, such as job characteristics, coworker relations, and leadership [3,4,5].
In China, employees often need to engage in the WeChat group established by the company, where they can communicate about work-related matters anytime and anywhere. Although the Labor standards stipulate working hours, the development of information communication technologies (ICT) such as the Internet and mobile phones have broken the barriers of time and space [6]. Employees still need to deal with work in non-working hours due to job requirements [7,8]. In addition, the research report of World at Work in 2015 pointed out that about 80% of organizations worldwide had offered forms of flexible work arrangements such as flexitime and telecommuting, where the boundaries between work and life are becoming increasingly blurred. Therefore. Scholars stated that after-hours work is becoming a prevalent behavior [6,9,10]. In this paper, after hours refers to non-working time [11]. Specifically, it refers to time outside of the labor contract provisions, including the time before work, after work, weekends, holidays, etc.
It is well recognized that stress reduces employee well-being and that excessive or sustained work pressure, as would be the case for some employees who are required to work excessive hours, can lead to negative outcomes [12]. According to Head, Martikainen, Kumari, Kuper, and Marmot [13], the evidence suggests that there is a higher risk of employees suffering from psychological health problems if they: (1) are required to work at a constant fast pace or are regularly faced with conflicting priorities, (2) have low levels of recognition, understanding, and support from their managers, or (3) are stressed because they have no control over how their work is completed.
The use of digital technologies for work-related matters during non-work hours is becoming increasingly common in contemporary workplaces. Ren et al. [9] argue that, despite the widespread nature of digital connectivity (DCON) in today’s organizations, its implications for employee job performance remain inadequately specified. Their studies reveal that DCON has an inverted U-shaped relationship with employee job performance, mediated by social capital development and emotional exhaustion. The results indicate that up to a certain threshold, after-hours connectivity for work-related purposes fosters greater social capital among employees and leads to better performance ratings from their supervisors. At low to moderate levels, staying connected to work proves beneficial for both employees and employers. This connectivity allows employees to build stronger relationships with individuals who can assist them in their roles, enhance their performance, and further their careers. However, when employees report exceeding moderate levels of connectivity, they are more likely to experience burnout and fatigue, dreading the prospect of facing another workday—indicators of emotional exhaustion. This, in turn, tends to negatively impact their job performance, as reflected in their supervisors’ ratings. Therefore, organizations risk harm if they fail to recognize that excessive connectivity may be detrimental to employee performance. It is essential for organizations to collaborate with employees to identify the threshold of connectivity and to clarify expectations regarding responses to after-hours messages.
After-hours work through ICT can also serve as a double-edged sword when it comes to employee creativity. On one hand, it can enhance employee creativity by enhancing work-family enrichment; on the other, it might lead to work-family conflict, which weakens employee creativity [7]. Passive engagement in after-hours work through ICT inhibits creativity by inducing emotional exhaustion, while active engagement enhances creativity by fostering work thriving [8]. Yue [14] revealed that work-related social media use after hours increases organizational identification and enhances work engagement, but also leads to more work–family conflict and less work engagement. These studies reveal that after-hours work through ICT can have both positive and negative effects on employee creativity due to various factors. Besides work–family conflict, work–family enrichment, and work thriving, work design is also a crucial trigger [15].
In practice, “24/7 work connectivity” refers to the expectation or ability for employees to be constantly connected to work-related tasks or communication, blurring the boundaries between work and personal life. Organizations and employees are actively adapting to this “new normal” [16]. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook now allow their employees to work from home permanently. However, employees have mixed feelings about this shift. Engaging in challenging work can make employees question existing methods and motivate them to propose new approaches [17]. Certain employees might embrace after-hours work because it enhances their self-efficacy, while others find the assignments too simple and trivial, consuming their leisure time without fostering growth. Thus, it is significant to investigate whether and how after-hours work challenges affect employee creativity.
Based on social exchange theory, which posits that resources are exchanged through a process of reciprocity—where one party tends to repay the good (or sometimes bad) deeds of another [10,18,19,20], we develop a moderated mediation model to explore the influence of after-hours work challenges on employee creativity. We propose that engaging in after-hours challenging work can promote employee creativity. Through the lens of social exchange theory, unlike economic exchanges that tend to operate as quid pro quo and involve less active monitoring, social exchanges are generally more open-ended and entail greater trust and flexibility [21]. Completing challenging work may make employees feel recognized and supported by their organization, enhancing their perceived insider status [19,20]. Employees with higher perceived insider status are more likely to invest effort in improving organizational performance [20]. Thus, we hypothesize that after-hours work challenges may enhance employee creativity through their perceived insider status.
The social exchange process begins with initiating actions, such as providing organizational support. According to social exchange theory, this organizational support is expected to enhance affective commitment and trust, which in turn fosters positive behavioral responses [21]. Thus, we believe that in a context of high servant leadership, which promotes the collective interest of employees, those handling after-hours challenging work are more likely to perceive organizational support, leading to higher perceived insider status and creativity. Servant leadership serves as a boundary condition for the impact of after-hours work challenges on employee creativity.
Our study aims to show that after-hours work challenges provoke employee creativity by improving perceived insider status. Servant leadership not only strengthens the direct effect of after-hours work challenges on perceived insider status but also intensifies the indirect effect on employee creativity. These findings suggest that managers should assign challenging tasks to employees after hours to help them develop their skills. Additionally, according to organizational support theory, employees’ perceptions of organizational support stem from their need to determine whether the organization will recognize and reward their increased efforts [21,22]. Therefore, leaders should prioritize serving their employees, keeping their interests in mind, and providing recognition and rewards to foster a positive environment for handling after-hours challenging work. Otherwise, assigning demanding tasks after hours may be perceived as exploitation.
This paper contributes to the current literature in several ways. First, it expands the creativity literature by revealing the positive impact of after-hours work challenges on employee creativity. Second, it investigates the role of leadership after hours, expanding leadership research from the working-time context to the non-working-time context. It extends boundary theory [23] by exploring the role of leadership as the boundary between work and life blurs.

2. The Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

Work challenges are characterized by tasks that are new, complex, and require unconventional skills and behaviors. It is derived from an individual’s perception or objective evaluation of a specific task [24]. Challenging work often involves higher responsibility and provides individuals with opportunities to learn, develop, and master new skills [25,26]. As a result, challenging work enhances employees’ intrinsic motivation, job performance, and job satisfaction and can positively affect career success [26,27,28].
Employee creativity is the production of novel and useful ideas related to products, processes, or services [1], and it is a vital component of employee innovation performance. Previous studies have shown that engaging in challenging work tends to positively impact job performance [26,28]. We infer that after-hours challenging work may also positively influence employee creativity performance.
Completing challenging work requires employees to acquire and process a large amount of information, expanding their multifaceted knowledge [25,29]. The accumulation of both homogeneous and heterogeneous knowledge provides employees with new perspectives, enabling them to propose creative solutions to problems [30]. Challenging tasks often involve new situations where conventional methods are insufficient [19]. In such situations, employees may question the effectiveness of existing skills and methods [24], prompting them to devise new ways to complete their work [26]. During the after hours, the characteristics of challenging work do not change. They still involve new situations. Therefore, we believe that after-hours challenging work will enhance employee creativity. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1.
After-hours work challenges will have a positive impact on employee creativity.
Perceived insider status refers to the extent to which employees believe they are insiders within an organization [19]. Organizational values and support for employee growth can enhance perceived insider status [31]. Challenging work provides opportunities to develop talents and gain skills [26], allowing employees to feel valued and supported, which can enhance their perceived insider status [19,32].
Engaging in after-hours challenging work allows employees to improve their abilities, satisfying their need for growth. Additionally, challenging work often requires new approaches to solve problems [26], especially after hours when resources are limited. Therefore, asking employees to participate in after-hours challenging work allows them to perceive organizational trust in their abilities, strengthening their identification with the organization and satisfying their need for competence and relationships [10]. Previous research has shown that satisfying employees’ needs for growth, competence, and relationships can enhance perceived insider status [33]. Therefore, we argue that after-hours work challenges can enhance employee perceived insider status. We propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2a.
After-hours work challenges will have a positive impact on employees’ perceived insider status.
The reciprocity principle in social exchange theory states that when employees receive benefits or perceive that the organization has given them benefits, they will actively show reciprocity behavior to the organization [18]. Employees with higher perceived insider status recognize organizational support for their development and, based on the reciprocity principle of social exchange theory, will proactively dedicate themselves to the organization [20]. Creativity is a crucial driver for organizational survival and growth, and engaging in creative activities is one way employees can repay the organization [2]. Additionally, higher perceived insider status can reduce anxiety caused by uncertainty and failure in creative activities and provide a foundation for generating new ideas. Employees with higher perceived insider status see themselves as integral to the organization, motivating them to contribute to organizational development by improving methods or developing new approaches [19]. Therefore, we believe that perceived insider status will promote employee creativity. We propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2b.
Perceived insider status will have a positive effect on employee creativity.
Even after hours, challenging work is a vital resource. Challenging work often involves new situations and requires employees to acquire and process a large amount of information [25,26,29]. Engaging in challenging work allows employees to improve their abilities perceive organizational trust in their abilities and enhance their perceived insider status. Based on the reciprocity principle, when employees receive benefits, they will actively show reciprocity behavior to the organization. Therefore, employees with higher perceived insider status feel a responsibility to repay the organization, encouraging them to actively participate in creative activities. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2c.
Perceived insider status mediates the relationship between after-hours work challenges and employee creativity.
The creation and maintenance of work–life boundaries are influenced by others, with leadership playing a particularly prominent role in the work domain [23]. Servant leadership transcends personal self-interest, prioritizes employee interests, and focuses on follower development [34]. Leaders represent the organization to some extent, and their concern and assistance are important resources that contribute to employee growth, satisfy their needs at multiple levels, and enhance positive emotions [35]. Therefore, we argue that servant leadership can strengthen employees’ perceived insider status resulting from engaging in after-hours challenging work.
In daily work, leaders take the initiative to help employees and prioritize the interests of employees, which makes employees perceive that the organization values them. In such circumstances, challenging work after hours can improve employees’ perceived organizational support for their growth, leading to higher perceived insider status [32]. Based on the reciprocity principle, employees will actively participate in creative activities to repay the organization. Conversely, when leaders are less aware of the need to help employees, the positive impact of work challenges after hours on perceived insider status diminishes. Non-work time is a valuable and limited resource, and employees need to gather positive emotions through leisure and recreation to replenish depleted resources and energy [36]. Dealing with challenging work after hours consumes more time, energy, and resources due to the absence of colleagues and other resources. If leaders do not show care when employees encounter difficulties, challenging work after hours may be perceived as an appropriation of their limited time, leading to a decrease in perceived insider status. Thus, we propose that servant leadership can strengthen the impact of after-hours work challenges on perceived insider status (Figure 1):
Hypothesis 3.
Servant leadership moderates the relationship between after-hours work challenges and perceived insider status, such that the relationship is stronger when servant leadership is high as opposed to low.
Hypothesis 4.
Servant leadership positively moderates the mediating role of employees’ perceived insider status between after-hours work challenges and creativity, such that the mediated effect is stronger when servant leadership is high as opposed to low.

3. Materials and Methods

Credamo, owning over 2.8 million online users, is a website specializing in online research data collection in China. Firstly, we established the criteria for participation in the questionnaire survey. In our study, we invited 300 company employees to participate. We then set up an incentive for completing the questionnaire: participants would receive 5 yuan for their responses. Finally, the questionnaire was uploaded to our website, where eligible users could take part in the survey. Upon completion, they would receive their rewards.
To ensure high-quality data, the study’s purpose and the anonymity of the data were stated at the beginning of the questionnaire. Additionally, screening questions were included to verify the seriousness of participants’ responses, and then we received 268 valid questionnaires.
All items in the questionnaire were self-assessed by employees, using a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Please see the Appendix A for the details.
  • After-Hours Work Challenges: A 6-item scale developed by Preenen et al. [24] was used to measure after-hours work challenges. A sample item is “My supervisor provides me with after-hours work that is challenging.” The alpha (α) for the after-hours work challenge scale was 0.86;
  • Perceived Insider Status: A 6-item scale developed by Stamper and Masterson [19] was adopted to measure perceived insider status. A sample item is “I feel very much a part of my work organization.” The alpha (α) for the perceived insider status scale was 0.82;
  • Creativity: A 4-item scale developed by Farmer et al. [5] was adopted to measure creativity. A sample item is “I can generate groundbreaking ideas related to the field.” The alpha (α) for the creativity scale was 0.75;
  • Servant Leadership: A 7-item scale developed by Liden et al. [37] was adopted to measure servant leadership. A sample item is “My leader makes my career development a priority.” The alpha (α) for the servant leadership scale was 0.80;
  • Control Variables: Employee characteristics that may affect creativity and perceived insider status, including gender, age, education, and organizational tenure, were controlled for in the statistical analysis.

4. Results

4.1. Common Method Variance

Since all responses were collected from a single source, common method variance could potentially threaten the validity of this study [38]. To assess this, we performed statistical analyses. Firstly, Harman’s single-factor test was conducted. The exploratory factor analysis extracted a principal component with a variance explanation rate of 30.97%, which is below the 40% threshold. Additionally, an unmeasured latent method factor test showed that the fit of the model with the common methods factor was slightly better (χ2 = 328.28, df = 201, IFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.94, CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.05) than the proposed four-factor model (χ2 = 484.11, df = 224, IFI = 0.90, TLI = 0.88, CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.07). However, the changes in IFI, TLI, and CFI were all below 0.1, and the change in RMSEA was below 0.05 [39]. Therefore, we concluded that our data did not suffer significantly from common method bias.

4.2. Discriminant Validity

We conducted confirmatory factor analyses on the four latent variables (after-hours work challenges, perceived insider status, servant leadership, and employee creativity) to examine their discriminant validity. The results are shown in Table 1. The baseline model (four-factor) fit the data significantly better (χ2 = 484.11, df = 224, IFI = 0.90, TLI = 0.88, CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.07) than all alternative models, supporting the of the four key variables.

4.3. Descriptive Statistical Analysis

Table 2 displays means, standard deviations, and correlations among all variables. The results indicated that after-hours work challenges positively correlated with employee creativity (r = 0.37, p < 0.01) and perceived insider status (r = 0.19, p < 0.01). Furthermore, perceived insider status is also positively related to creativity (r = 0.42, p < 0.01). Therefore, Hypotheses H1, H2a, and H2b received preliminary support.

4.4. Hypothesis Testing

Main Effects Test: Table 3 shows the results of the hierarchical regressions of perceived insider status and creativity. After-hours work challenges significantly promoted employee creativity (Model 5, β = 0.36, p < 0.01) and perceived insider status (Model 2, β = 0.17, p < 0.01). Additionally, perceived insider status significantly promoted employee creativity (Model 4, β = 0.38, p < 0.01). Therefore, Hypotheses H1, H2a, and H2b were supported.
Mediation Effect Test: To test the mediating role of perceived insider status, we added both after-hours work challenges and perceived insider status to the model. As shown in Table 3, perceived insider status had a significant positive effect on creativity (Model 6, β = 0.33, p < 0.01), and the positive relationship between after-hours work challenges and employee creativity remained significant (Model 6, β = 0.31, p < 0.01), though the coefficient decreased from 0.36 to 0.31, indicating that perceived insider status partially mediates this relationship. Additionally, bootstrapping procedures showed that the 95% confidence interval for the indirect effect did not contain zero (0.02, 0.08), further indicating significant mediation. Hence, Hypothesis 2c was supported.
Moderating Effect Test: The results for moderating effects are shown in Table 4. Prior to the analyses, all continuous measures were mean-centered. The interaction term of after-hours work challenges and servant leadership was significantly related to perceived insider status (Model 4, β = 0.24, p < 0.01). We plotted the interaction effect at different levels of servant leadership (one standard deviation above and below the mean). As shown in Figure 2, the relationship between after-hours work challenges and perceived insider status was stronger under high servant leadership. A simple slope test [40] indicated a significant positive effect of after-hours work challenges on perceived insider status when servant leadership was high (β = 0.08, p < 0.05) and a significant negative effect when servant leadership was low (β = −0.19, p < 0.01). Thus, Hypothesis 3 was supported.
Moderated Mediating Effects Test: We examined the conditional indirect effect of after-hours work challenges on employee creativity through perceived insider status at two levels of servant leadership (one standard deviation above and below the mean). As shown in Table 5, the conditional indirect effect of after-hours work challenges on creativity via perceived insider status was negative and significant at lower levels of servant leadership (Effect size = −0.07, 95% CI = [−0.12, −0.02]), positive and significant at higher levels of servant leadership (Effect size = 0.03, 95% CI = [0.00, 0.06]), and the difference between these conditional indirect effects was significant (Effect size = 0.10, 95% CI = [0.04, 0.15]). The index indicator showed a conditional indirect effect of 0.08 (95% CI = [0.04, 0.13]), with a confidence interval excluding 0. These results supported Hypothesis 4.

5. Discussion

The development and application of ICT have led to employees being increasingly in a 24/7 work-connected state, which can lead to adverse outcomes such as fatigue, turnover, and work–family conflict [41,42,43]. Mitigating these adverse effects is challenging for modern organizations. And thus, we explored the role of after-hours work challenges to solve this practical problem. Specifically, this study, based on social exchange theory, found that after-hours work challenges can lead to employee creativity by enhancing their perceived insider status, and servant leadership not only positively moderates the direct relationship between after-hours work challenges and employee perceived insider status, but also moderate the indirect effects between after-hours work challenges and employee creativity.

5.1. Theoretical Contributions

This paper aims to discuss a positive possibility within the current work situation that as the development of ICT the boundaries between work and life are becoming increasingly blurred. Specifically, when employees receive work requests after hours, challenging tasks may be conducive to their creative growth. This paper has several theoretical contributions. First, while most existing studies have explored the effects of after-hours work on employees’ behavior, psychology, and cognition from the perspective of frequency or organizational expectations [41,42,43], we focused on the role of work challenges on employee creativity in non-working time contexts. Unlike previous studies that focus on the negative effects of after-hours work, this paper, based on the reality that the boundary between work and life is constantly being broken, attempts to explain how after-hours work challenges play a positive role in enhancing employee creativity. And, we found that after-hours work challenges can improve employee creativity through perceived insider status, which expands the research on factors influencing creativity from working time to after hours. Previous studies on the impact of employee creativity have mainly used creativity self-efficacy, work–family conflict, and emotional exhaustion as mediating variables [7,8,32]. We found that perceived insider status is a vital psychological mechanism that affects employee creativity, supplementing the literature about creativity. Furthermore, previous studies have shown that leadership is the main factor affecting employees perceived insider status [32,44].
Our study echoes the previous research which reveals after-hours work has positive outcomes, which is it contributes to psychological health, work motivation, and work satisfaction [45,46]. Beckers et al. found that employees with relatively favorable work characteristics (high decision latitude and high job variety) are enthusiastic about their jobs (high work motivation) [47]. Our study aligns with Beckers et al.’s finding that overtime workers appear to be ‘happy’ workers who are engaged and motivated, rather than fatigued employees.
Second, this paper explored the mechanism of after-hours work challenges on employee creativity. Existing creativity studies have mainly examined the direct role of job characteristics [15] or as boundary conditions for organizational factors affecting creativity [48]. In this paper, we argue that after-hours work challenges are conducive to enhancing employee perceived insider status, which encourages employees to come up with new ideas to solve problems to improve their work. This facilitates a deeper understanding of the relationship between job characteristics and employee behavior.
Finally, boundary theory states that the creation and maintenance of individual work–life boundaries can be influenced by leaders [23]. Servant leadership is seen as “a style of leadership that promotes the collective interest of employees, helping them reach collective goals” [49]. Servant leadership positively impacts employees’ creative process engagement in an organizational context [50]. Our paper expands the score of this process. After-hours work challenges, under the context of higher servant leadership, have a positive impact on employee creativity by enhancing their perceived insider status; However, under the context of lower servant leadership, after-hours work challenges will result in employees’ lower perceived insider status, and then diminish their creativity. The findings of this paper not only echo the opinion in boundary theory [23] but also emphasize the importance of leadership for employee output when the boundary of work and family blurs.

5.2. Practical Implications

With the development of ICT, employees have to engage in after-hours work activities. Especially in the post-epidemic era, companies are choosing remote work to cope with the crisis, making the boundary between work and life even more blurred. Frequent requests for employees to work after hours can lead to fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and increased turnover intention, and thus companies need to take action to address these negative effects resulting from after-hours work. This paper found that employees participating in challenging work in after-hours scenarios will generate higher perceived insider status and creativity. Therefore, the work that organizations assign to employees after hours should be challenging enough that employees are able to acquire skill enhancement and growth by handling such tasks, rather than filling employees’ already inadequate spare time resources with tedious and boring tasks.
Nowadays ICT is highly developed and companies can easily contact employees during after hours through WeChat, email, and phone calls, which leads to employees often having to do after-hours work. This has sparked employee resentment, for instance, some employees complain that the organization wants them to become a “never-ending robot”. Our finding revealed that organizations can influence the impact of after-hours work on employees’ mental condition and behavior. Specifically, under the context of higher servant leadership, the positive relationship between after-hours work challenges and employee-perceived insider status will be strengthened; however, there is a negative relationship between after-hours work challenges and employee-perceived insider status in the lower servant leadership contexts. Therefore, leaders should realize the importance of serving employees. Leaders can enhance employees’ sense of belonging by serving them, making them feel like they are a part of the enterprise, thereby enhancing their creativity and reducing the negative impact of working after hours.
Leaders need to put employees in their shoes when assigning after-hours challenging work and make them perceive that they are nurtured and trained by the organization. In such a work climate, employees consider themselves as insiders of the organization and participate in creative activities actively.
In today’s rapidly changing world, continual self-education plays a crucial role in personal growth and professional development. Addressing work challenges after hours offers employees numerous opportunities for improvement: (1) Deepening Understanding: Employees can explore complex tasks more deeply than they do during regular hours; (2) Skill Development: solving problems or tackling new projects can lead to the acquisition of new skills that may not be part of their usual responsibilities; (3) Networking and Collaboration: collaborating with others on projects after hours can expand their professional network and expose them to diverse perspectives and ideas; (4) Personal Motivation: taking the initiative to work on challenges after hours demonstrates ambition and drive, which can lead to personal development and career advancement.
Addressing work challenges after hours requires employee engagement and commitment, as well as positive attitudes such as openness, self-efficacy, and future orientation, along with skills like problem-solving and time management. Successfully completing challenging tasks after hours demands motivation, self-awareness, attention, and intention, as well as social and organizational support. All of these factors are also considered the “pillars of self-directed learning” [51]. Thus, the process of tackling work challenges after hours can be regarded as a self-education process. Companies can foster an organizational culture that values continuous learning by providing sufficient resources and tools, as well as mentorship and peer support to encourage collaboration and shared learning experiences.

5.3. Limitations and Future Research

There are certain limitations in this study. First, all variables were measured by self-assessment, which could not completely overcome the common method bias. Future research could mitigate this limitation by collecting data from different sources (e.g., supervisor ratings, and objective performance metrics) across multiple time points. Furthermore, our research was conducted in China, and future studies could enhance statistical power and generalizability by collecting larger samples of data from different countries and cultural backgrounds. Previous studies have shown that the relationship between flexible working and work–family conflict differs for men and women [52]. Additionally, the impact of work role ambiguity on work–family conflict also varies between genders [53]. Our study did not differentiate between genders in examining the influence of after-hours work challenges on employee creativity. Future research could investigate the effects on men and women separately and explore any differences between the two genders.
Second, as creativity has two distinct types: radical creativity and incremental creativity, future research can further explore whether after-hours work challenges affect these two types of creativity differently. Moreover, employees have different preferences for the boundary between work and life. For example, some people prefer work–life integration, while others prefer work–life segmentation. Future research can explore the effect of the role of after-hours work challenges on employees with different boundary preferences. Regarding the dependent variable, our research did not use well-being or related outcomes as a dependent variable. A recent study by Tedone [54] investigates the relationship between work-related email (WRE) use during non-work hours and emotional exhaustion among U.S. employees who were required to work from home during the pandemic. Future studies could examine the relationship between engaging in challenging work after hours and job-related outcomes such as well-being, job satisfaction, job commitment, and other factors.
Third, we did not consider the influence of the stage of career, income, and the length of working hours which might be the factors affecting creativity. Future research can explore whether the effect in this article will fade over time and whether the conclusions are consistent under different stages of career and income contexts. For example, employees with higher incomes are more likely to perceive after-hours work challenges as organizational recognition and cultivation, resulting in higher levels of creativity. In addition, we explain how after-hours work challenges can positively enhance employee creativity with the organizational support of servant leadership. This aligns with the observation that overtime workers with relatively favorable work characteristics exhibit high job motivation and experience fewer fatigue-related outcomes. Future studies should address how long the predominance of motivation over fatigue can last, as well as the impact on employee creativity and fatigue-related outcomes in adverse psychosocial work environments.

6. Conclusions

Grounded in social exchange theory, this study establishes a moderated mediation model to elucidate the impact of after-hours work challenges on employee creativity. Our findings indicate that engaging in after-hours challenging tasks can boost employee creativity by enhancing their perceived insider status. Moreover, servant leadership not only amplifies the direct influence of after-hours work challenges on perceived insider status but also strengthens the indirect link between these challenges and employee creativity. This research contributes to the literature on employee creativity and work design, emphasizing the importance of assigning challenging tasks after hours to facilitate employee development. Leaders, in turn, should prioritize serving employees to foster creativity and mitigate the negative effects of after-hours work.
To prevent employees from becoming fatigued over time when handling work challenges after hours, it is vital for companies to provide a relatively favorable psychosocial work environment. Companies need to cultivate positive relationships and actively seek and respond to employee feedback. By prioritizing these factors, organizations can create an atmosphere that supports both employee well-being and productivity. To enhance creativity in the workplace, organizations should focus on fostering an environment that encourages autonomy, supports collaboration, and promotes diverse perspectives. By designing an inspiring workspace, providing learning opportunities, allowing for experimentation, and celebrating creative efforts, companies can create a culture that consistently sparks innovation and fresh ideas among their employees. Companies need to create an environment to encourages self-directed learning and also supports employees in their personal and professional growth. This approach ultimately benefits the organization by fostering a more skilled, knowledgeable, and engaged workforce.

Author Contributions

Writing—original draft, Conceptualization, data collection, and analysis, F.R.; Writing—review and editing, Conceptualization, Validation, Y.Z.; Methodology, conceptualization, and validation, Z.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science (Grant No. 2020EGL007); Guangdong Province Philosophy and Social Sciences (Grant No. GD22WZX02-10); The Department of Education of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 306-6022240005Q); Shenzhen Polytechnic Research Fund (Grant No. 6023310004S).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Appendix A

  • After-Hours Work Challenge (source: [24]).
    My supervisor provides me with after-hours assignments
    (1)
    that are challenging;
    (2)
    in which I have to deal with new situations and challenges;
    (3)
    that are high in responsibilities;
    (4)
    of which success and failure are clearly visible to other people;
    (5)
    that require multiple skills;
    (6)
    in which I have to deal with many different people.
  • Servant Leadership (Source: [37]).
    (1)
    My manager can tell if something work-related is going wrong;
    (2)
    My manager makes my career development a priority;
    (3)
    I would seek help from my manager if I had a personal problem;
    (4)
    My manager emphasizes the importance of giving back to the community;
    (5)
    My manager puts my best interests ahead of his/her own;
    (6)
    My manager gives me the freedom to handle difficult situations in the way that I feel is best;
    (7)
    My manager would NOT compromise ethical principles in order to achieve success.
  • Employee Creativity (Source: [5]).
    (1)
    I try new ideas or methods first;
    (2)
    I seek new ideas and ways to solve problems;
    (3)
    I generate ground-breaking ideas related to the field;
    (4)
    I am a good role model for creativity.
  • Perceived insider status (Source: [19]).
    (1)
    I feel very much a part of my work organization;
    (2)
    My work organization makes me believe that I am included in it;
    (3)
    I feel I am an ‘insider’ in my work organization;
    (4)
    I feel like I am an ‘outsider’ at this organization (R);
    (5)
    I don’t feel included in this organization (R);
    (6)
    My work organization makes me frequently feel ‘left-out’ (R).

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Sustainability 16 07610 g001
Figure 1. The research framework.
Figure 1. The research framework.
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Figure 2. The moderating effect of servant leadership on the relationship between after-hours work challenges and perceived insider status. Note, SL = servant leadership; WCA = work challenge after-hours.
Figure 2. The moderating effect of servant leadership on the relationship between after-hours work challenges and perceived insider status. Note, SL = servant leadership; WCA = work challenge after-hours.
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Table 1. The results of confirmatory factor analyses.
Table 1. The results of confirmatory factor analyses.
ModelsVariablesχ2dfχ2/dfRMSEAIFITLICFI
Four-factor modelWCA, PIS, SL, C484.112242.160.070.900.880.90
Three-factor modelWCA+PIS, SL, C1048.742274.620.120.670.630.67
Two-factor modelWCA+PIS+SL, C1203.052295.250.130.610.570.61
One-factor modelWCA+PIS+SL+C1249.362305.430.130.590.550.59
Note(s): N = 268, WCA is after-hours work challenges, PIS is perceived insider status, SL is servant leadership, C is creativity, and “+” means that the factors are merged into one factor.
Table 2. Means, standard deviations, and correlations among study variables (N = 268).
Table 2. Means, standard deviations, and correlations among study variables (N = 268).
VariablesMeansStandard Deviation1234567
1. Gender0.520.50
2. Age2.200.62−0.15 *
3. Education2.840.620.01−0.09
4. Tenure2.901.08−0.18 **0.62 **−0.00
5. After-hours work challenge 3.370.83−0.040.010.0260.06
6. Perceived insider status4.200.570.040.070.17 **0.22 **0.19 **
7. Servant leadership3.910.58−0.010.040.100.13 *0.28 **0.66 **
8. Creativity4.020.600.11−0.030.12 *0.13 *0.37 **0.42 **0.68 **
Note(s): * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.
Table 3. Regression results from perceived insider status and creativity (N = 268).
Table 3. Regression results from perceived insider status and creativity (N = 268).
VariablesPerceived Insider StatusCreativity
Model 1Model 2Model 3Model 4Model 5Model 6
Gender0.070.080.13 *0.100.14 *0.12 *
Age−0.09−0.08−0.16 *−0.13−0.15 *−0.13
Education0.16 **0.16 **0.110.040.100.05
Tenure0.29 **0.28 **0.26 **0.15 **0.23 **0.14 *
After-hours work challenge 0.17 ** 0.36 **0.31 **
Perceived insider status 0.38 ** 0.33 **
F6.42 **6.96 **4.69 **13.05 **12.76 **17.72 **
ΔF6.428.404.6943.4842.1434.37
R20.090.120.070.200.200.29
ΔR20.090.030.070.130.130.09
Indirect effectsmediation of perceivedEffect BootSEBootLLCLBootULCL
insider status0.050.020.020.08
Note(s): * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.
Table 4. Regression results for testing moderation of servant leadership (N = 268).
Table 4. Regression results for testing moderation of servant leadership (N = 268).
VariablesModel 1Model 2Model 3Model 4
(Constant)−0.80 **−0.79 **−0.54 **−0.58 **
Gender0.080.090.070.08
Age−0.08−0.07−0.05−0.06
Education0.15 **0.15 **0.09 *0.10 *
Tenure0.15 **0.15 **0.10 **0.10 **
After-hours work challenges 0.12 **0.00−0.06
Servant leadership 0.61 **0.65 **
After-hours work challenge * Servant leadership 0.24 **
F6.42 **6.96 **38.47 **36.36 **
ΔF6.428.40173.1812.98
R20.090.120.470.50
ΔR20.0890.030.350.03
Note(s): * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.
Table 5. Results of testing moderated mediation (n = 268).
Table 5. Results of testing moderated mediation (n = 268).
LevelConditional Indirect EffectsBootSEBootLLCIBootULCI
Servant
leadership		Low (mean − 1SD)−0.07 0.03 −0.12 −0.02
High (mean + 1SD)0.03 0.01 0.00 0.06
Difference0.100.270.040.15
The moderated mediation effectJudging indicatorsIndexBootSEBootLLCIBootULCI
0.08 0.02 0.04 0.13
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Ren, F.; Zhou, Y.; Song, Z. After-Hours Work Challenges and Employee Creativity: A Moderated Mediation Model. Sustainability 2024, 16, 7610. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177610

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Ren F, Zhou Y, Song Z. After-Hours Work Challenges and Employee Creativity: A Moderated Mediation Model. Sustainability. 2024; 16(17):7610. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177610

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Ren, Fengmei, Yuerong Zhou, and Zhigang Song. 2024. "After-Hours Work Challenges and Employee Creativity: A Moderated Mediation Model" Sustainability 16, no. 17: 7610. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177610

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