How mindfulness unlocks employee creativity: the role of workplace curiosity and performance feedback

Introduction: Employee traits play an important role in influencing creativity; however, it remains unclear whether mindfulness- a dynamic and adaptive personal quality- facilitates creativity. Drawing on causal orientation theory and control theory, this study aims to develop a moderated mediation model that explains how and when employee mindfulness enhances creativity. Methods: We conducted a three-wave, two-source field survey with 232 full-time employee-supervisor dyads in China. Established and validated scales were used to measure employee mindfulness, workplace curiosity, creativity, and performance feedback. We used the latent moderated structural equations (LMS) approach implemented in Mplus Version 8.3 to test the hypothesized relationships among the variables. Results: Employee mindfulness significantly boosts creativity by stimulating workplace curiosity, and this indirect relationship is moderated by performance feedback. Specifically, the positive effect of mindfulness on curiosity is stronger when employees perceive higher levels of performance feedback, which subsequently leads to greater creativity. Discussion: This study highlights the vital role of employee mindfulness in fostering creativity. By identifying curiosity as a key motivational mechanism and performance feedback as a crucial boundary condition, this work advances the literature on creativity, mindfulness, and curiosity in organizational settings.