Too sleepy to be innovative? Employee creativity, innovative climate and organizational performance: an emergence-based HRM framework

Purpose Drawing on the emergence-based HRM framework, this study aims to analyze the multilevel impact of employee creativity (EC) on organizational performance (OP) through the lens of innovative climate and develop novel insights about distinctive cross-level mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach Employing primary methods, the study's sample includes multi-level data from 400 academic staff members and 100 HR directors from universities in Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested with multilevel SEM through MPLUS. Findings This study corroborates the fact that the upward link between EC and OP is subjected to the organizational innovative climate. The findings also reveal the fact that in this competitive era, an organizations' innovative climate plays a critical role in facilitating new idea generation, and also sharing and communicating those ideas with peers and colleagues. Practical implications The current research has potential implications for educations sector (i.e., teachers, HRM professionals and administrative executives) and policymakers to achieve excellent performance. This study provides evidence of the organization's need to be well aware of the value of organizational innovative climate. At the same time, the current study provides a crucial connotation for maintaining a healthy, innovative climate and EC. Originality/value The current study fills out by empirically inspecting the emergence-enabling process that allows employees to be more creative, which leads to improved OP. Moreover, given the need for improving the educational sector's performance, this study contributes by unfolding the importance of an organization's innovative climate in the higher education sector of developing economies, where performance is decreasing every passing year.