Happy music and employee creativity in the workplace: Psychological safety as a mediator

The importance of music is a key topic that has been studied in many disciplines. We examined the relationship between employees’ perception of happy music and their creative performance, and explored the mediating effect of psychological safety in this link. Data were collected from 315 employees working in three large hotels located in Mainland China. We performed structural equation modeling to test the proposed research model. Results show that employees’ perception of happy music was positively related to creative performance, and this relationship was mediated by perceived psychological safety. Therefore, employees produced creative outcomes while perceiving the happiness of music in the workplace, in part because they felt psychologically safe. Our findings offer organizations practical insight into how to promote employee creativity by using music as an effective tool for enhancing the quality of the work environment. Implications for future research are discussed.