The triggering effect of office design on employee creative performance: an exploratory investigation based on Duffy’s conceptualization

The physical work environment has a far-reaching effect on employee creativity. However, the research conceptualizing office design typically focuses on specific rather than broad dimensions. In this study, the effectiveness of design for autonomy and interactive office design is investigated, based on Duffy’s office design model. We take an interactive perspective and propose that office environment (design for autonomy and interactive office design) interacts with individual factors (intrinsic motivation and diversity ideology) to influence employees’ level of creativity. We first developed and validated items of office design and diversity ideology, and then tested our hypotheses in the main study. It was found that employees with strong intrinsic motivation and diversity ideology made the optimal use of office design for promoting the level of creativity. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.