While extensive research has demonstrated that positive affect enhances creativity, the relationship between negative affect and creativity remains ambiguous. Existing studies suggest that employees achieve more or less creativity in the workplace because affect influences their cognitive ability or delivers information that has a direct bearing on creativity. Departing from these approaches, our work proposes that employees might actively engage in creative processes to cope with negative affect. Drawing upon the literature on emotional and coping as well as the Contingency of Self-Worth (CSW) theory, we develop a theoretical framework to explain when and how employees use creative engagement to respond to negative affect from different sources. We tested our hypotheses by a multisource design with 287 employees. Our finding partially supported our hypotheses, though some unexpected results emerged. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
