Dual Tuning in a Supportive Context: Joint Contributions of Positive Mood, Negative Mood, and Supervisory Behaviors to Employee Creativity

We develop a dual-tuning perspective concerning how positive and negative moods interact to influence creativity in supportive contexts. Using data on employees in an oil field services company, we hypothesized and found that when supervisors provided a supportive context for creativity and positive mood was high, negative mood had a strong, positive relation to creativity, with creativity being the highest when the context was supportive and both positive and negative moods were high. We explored three alternative ways in which supervisors can provide a supportive context: by providing developmental feedback, by displaying interactional justice, and by being trustworthy.