When Do Ruminations About Life-Threatening Crises Threaten Creativity? The Critical Role of Resilience

This study adds to creativity research by investigating the connection between employees' ruminations about life-threatening crises and their creative work behavior, with a specific focus on the mediating role of their experiences of personal life-to-work conflict and the moderating role of their resilience in this connection. Cross-sectional survey data (N = 710) gathered from employees who operate in the health-related distribution sector indicate that a key factor that underpins the connection between persistent worries about deadly crises and thwarted creativity at work is that personal life worries spill over into the work domain, but this detrimental effect is less salient if employees can bounce back from difficult situations. For organizations, this investigation reveals a critical conduit, personal life - induced work strain, through which employees' struggles to ban negative thoughts about excruciating crises translate into a lower propensity to develop novel ideas for organizational improvement. It also reveals how organizations can mitigate this risk by making their workforce more resilient.