Working in the office or working from home: Where are employees most creative?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how we work. Even after the pandemic, many companies offer their employees the option of working from home. Although working from home may offer several benefits, our understanding of whether employees are more creative when working from home or in an office is limited. To address this research gap, we conducted an experimental study with a German company whose employees usually work in an activity-based workspace consisting of open, closed and informal spaces that can be used by employees depending on the task at hand. Employees self-assessed their creative performance for different creative tasks (individual vs. team) and in different work environments (office vs. home office). Our findings reveal that for individual creative tasks (e.g. creating a presentation), employees are more creative when working from home (vs. in the office) because they experience higher levels of perceived psychological freedom (mediating effect). By contrast, for team creative tasks (e.g. developing ideas for a new product), employees reported being more creative when working in the office (vs. from home) due to higher levels of perceived psychological safety (mediating effect). Taken together, these findings enhance our understanding of when and how working from home (vs. in the office) may be beneficial for employees' creativity.