Happy marriages encourage creativity, innovation at work, study finds

People who are already highly creative are less affected by their personal relationships

A happy marriage could make employees more creative at work, according to new research.

The study, led by Professor Xu Huang from the School of Business of Hong Kong Baptist University, analyzed how workers’ personal relationships affect their innovation and creativity, according to the business school.

Researchers found that when workers are happy in their marriages, they “experience positive spillover of psychological resources into their work,” according to the school.

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That effect was found to be even greater for employees whose spouses were also happy, according to the study.

An employee’s marriage also affects their work in the opposite direction, the study found.

When workers were found to be unhappy in their relationships, their “psychological resources” were found to be depleted, according to the study.

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“This indicates that partners can exert strong influence over an employee’s work performance and that a high-quality marriage is conducive to creativity at work,” the press release said.

However, for people who are naturally highly creative, their marriage had less of an effect on their creativity and innovation, the study found.

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Researchers suggest companies should offer “family-friendly policies,” according to the business school.

Some of the suggested policies include anniversary leave, relationship counseling services, work-life balance initiatives and focusing on the “relationships of less creative employees,” since their creativity is boosted by a happy marriage more than people who are already creative, the press release said.

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