Understanding the Inner Muse: Integrating the Creative Self-Efficacy Literature

Although research has accumulated regarding antecedents and outcomes of creative self-efficacy (CSE), theoretical arguments and empirical findings have been mixed. This study reports a meta-analytic investigation of the nomological network of CSE involving 286 correlations obtained from 107 studies. Meta-analytic results for relations between CSE and both individual (Big Five personality, creative personality, creative identity, job self-efficacy, age, tenure, and education) and contextual (support for creativity, job complexity, job autonomy, transformational leadership, LMX, and expectations for creativity) antecedents of CSE, and between CSE and creativity are presented. Findings include an investigation of the moderating effects of research design (self- vs. other-report of creativity) and culture (individualistic vs. collectivistic) on the relationship between CSE and creativity. Individual characteristic analyses suggest that creative personality and openness to experience have a substantially stronger relationship with CSE than any other personality dimension. Regarding demographic predictors of CSE, education was the only demographic variable found to be related to CSE. Contextual predictor analyses indicate job design, leadership, and support variables have moderate, positive relationships with CSE. Outcome analysis results suggest the positive relationship between CSE and creative behavior is moderated by research design. Results do not support the view that the relationship between CSE and creativity is moderated by culture. Effect size estimates for creative role identity and creative personal identity were so strong as to raise questions about their discriminant validity. Implications for researchers and practitioners as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.