Workload pressure, person-job fit, innovation trust and creativity in Malaysian private higher education institutions

An educator’s ingenuity is important in nurturing creative thinking skills amongst graduates. The higher education sector of any country is considered as an important sector which needs to concentrate on achieving its goals successfully This research explored the moderating role of Innovative trust (IT) in the relationship between person job fit (P-J fit), workload pressure (WP) and creativity. The model of the study was developed based on relevant theoretical background. Web survey technique was used to administer 760 Google form application questionnaires to participants in the Malaysian private higher educator’s institutions. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) method and bootstrapping techniques were used to test the hypotheses. 760 questionnaires were created using the Google form application and distributed to respondents in the Malaysian private higher education institutions via Email. The results of the analysis supported all four hypotheses. A strong negative correlation was found between workload pressure and creativity whilst person-job fit and creativity revealed a positive relationship. The significant effects of workload pressure and person-job fit on creativity together with the substantial moderating effect of innovation trust suggest that all these variables are essential for encouraging educators’ creativity in the Malaysian private higher institutions. Moreover, the findings support the view that workload pressure can become an obstacle for educators to teach creatively even if their personality and job skills indicate interest to be innovative. Hence, conducive working environment will help educators to be more confident in sharing their innovative ideas amongst co-workers even in current competitive environments. Therefore, policy-makers and leaders of private higher education institutions of Malaysia should focus on the role of innovation trust. Theoretical and practical contributions, limitations, and implications are also discussed.