Exploring the Effect of Job Autonomy on Employee Creativity: The Moderating Contribution of Role Ambiguity

Organizational innovation and success in the long run depend on employee creativity which is achieved through job autonomy where employees are given freedom to exercise their full potential creatively. The existing research focuses on the connection between job autonomy and employee creativity and the moderating factor of role ambiguity. The findings show that job autonomy and employee creativity have a significant positive relationship, which is moderated by role ambiguity in a significant way. The quantitative and cross-sectional research design was followed where a sample of 300 employees (n=150 male, n=150 female) based on snowball and convenience sampling in multinational and local marketing agencies in Pakistan was used. An online questionnaire including (i) Work Autonomy Subscale of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman and Oldham, 1974) and (ii) Creative-Self Short Scale (Karwowski, 2018) was used to collect the data. The results also contribute to the scanty literature on the topic of creativity among the marketing community and point to the significance of job autonomy, as well as role ambiguity, in enhancing employee creativity.