Rewards and employee creativity among rural healthcare employees: the mediating role of organizational support for innovation and the moderating impact of supervisory support

Purpose This paper aims to explore the mediating effect of organizational support for innovation and moderating impact of supervisory support on how rewards shape employee creativity among rural healthcare employees, a group with few resources and considerable expectations. Design/methodology/approach Using a regression-based moderated path analysis, the authors tested the hypotheses with healthcare employee survey data from a large Southern rural hospital in the USA. Findings The empirical results suggest organizational support for innovation mediates the influence of rewards on employee creativity. In addition, the indirect effect of rewards on employee creativity via organizational support for innovation is moderated by supervisory support, such that the indirect effect is more pronounced at high levels of supervisory support than at low levels of supervisory support. Originality/value This study contributes to the organizational support and creativity literature by exploring the indirect relations of rewards on employee creativity through organizational support for innovation, and the moderating role of supervisory support in such relations.