The impact of knowledge and motivation management on creativity Employees of innovative Spanish companies

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence that two variables related to human resources (HR) have on employee creativity - namely, knowledge management (KM) and motivation management (MM). Design/methodology/approach - The linear regression analyses are based on a sample of 306 employees from 11 Spanish companies belonging to three innovative clusters. In addition, "creativity" is considered an antecedent of technological innovation. Findings - KM and intrinsic MM are shown to inform creativity, whereas extrinsic MM has no such effect. Practical implications - Although this study is based on cross-sectional data, the findings might induce researchers to investigate the effects of other HR variables, such as the types of relations between employees and their long-term impact on creativity. Management should encourage KM and intrinsic MM across employees, as the results indicate that tacit KM, explicit KM and intrinsic MM encourage a positive attitude toward creativity among employees. Originality/value - The main contribution is new empirical evidence on the joint influence of aptitudes (KM) and attitudes (MM) on employee creativity. In addition, the study includes a key measure of employee creativity. The evidence reveals the types of KM and MM that encourage or inhibit creative employee behavior. The results show that once employees have reached a medium-high level of extrinsic MM, creativity will be affected solely by intrinsic MM.