Activating creative behaviour of academic knowledge workers in selected public universities in Uganda :

Abstract

The current constantly volatile and dynamic work environment on the global scene requires education institutions as knowledge dissemination platforms to enhance staff creativity to thrive. But empirical studies about creativity in the service sector and, more particularly, in education settings are limited. And studies that seek to establish the link between hope and creativity have not considered how hope enhances the different behaviors that make up creative behavior, although scholars have revealed that creativity involves different activities. We used a sample drawn from the academic staff of three public Universities in Uganda located in Kampala city to establish how hope influences creative behavior. The research employed a cross-sectional study design to assess the hypothesized linkage between hope and creative behavior. The results establish that hope has a significant effect on the three dimensions of creativity. Regarding control variables, apart from Education which significantly influenced idea exploration, idea generation, and idea championing, age, gender and tenure did not significantly influence the three facets of creative behavior. The results build on the theory of hope by demonstrating the impact of hope on various aspects of creative behavior. The findings support the dual pathway to creativity model’s arguments that individuals with high hope levels are cognitively flexible to work towards the achievement of creative targets and, when befallen by failure, can devise other solutions to tackle work- related challenges. Keywords: Creative behavior, Universities, Hope, Academic knowledge workers, Uganda, Dual pathway to creativity model