Sleepless Yet Creative: How Commitment, Sharing, and Forgiveness Sustain Innovation

What is it about?

This study investigates how insomnia—a growing workplace concern—affects employees’ creativity and how this effect can be softened by emotional and social resources such as affective commitment, knowledge sharing, and organizational forgiveness. Grounded in Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, it views insomnia as draining cognitive and emotional energy, reducing creative capacity. Yet when employees feel attached to their organization and supported by collaborative, forgiving environments, they recover enough energy to sustain creativity. Survey data from employees in Guinea-Bissau show that insomnia reduces creativity by limiting attention, motivation, and emotional control. Yet this effect weakens for employees with high affective commitment, who stay motivated despite fatigue. Knowledge sharing also buffers exhaustion by providing cognitive support and new ideas, while organizational forgiveness—an accepting, understanding culture—prevents self-blame and fosters safety, enabling creativity even under sleep-related strain. The results suggest that organizations can sustain creativity even in stressful, resource-depleting contexts by cultivating emotional connection, collaboration, and compassion. Rather than focusing solely on sleep management or workload reduction, firms can enhance creativity by fostering a climate of trust, shared learning, and empathy that replenishes employees’ resources when physical recovery is limited.

Featured Image

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is unique in linking insomnia—a physiological strain—to creativity through emotional and social resource mechanisms. By integrating affective commitment, knowledge sharing, and organizational forgiveness into a single framework, it expands COR theory to show how resource gains in one domain (relationships and emotions) can offset losses in another (sleep and energy). The research redefines creativity not as a purely cognitive process but as one sustained by organizational compassion and social connectedness. It is also timely, given the global rise of sleep deprivation and burnout across industries. Conducted in Guinea-Bissau, the study extends cross-cultural understanding by showing how collectivist values and interpersonal warmth can protect creative performance even under fatigue. Its findings encourage organizations to complement wellness programs with emotional and relational support systems—helping employees stay creative and engaged, even when rest is scarce.