Employee mindfulness and creativity in the media industry: the roles of intrinsic motivation, cognitive flexibility, and supervisor support

Within the competitive landscape of creative industries, fostering employee creativity is essential for organisational innovation. Recently, mindfulness has been recognised as a significant contributor to creativity, yet its impact within creative industries and the underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. To address these gaps, we examine the relationship between mindfulness and employee creativity and propose a model based on the Componential Theory of Creativity, tested with employees from six media organisations in Turkey (N = 561). The findings confirm that mindfulness significantly enhances employee creativity through intrinsic motivation and cognitive flexibility. Additionally, we examine the moderating effect of perceived supervisor support, revealing a moderated mediation effect in the link between mindfulness and creativity. Finally, we discuss practical implications and future research directions.