Creative Work From Home: an analysis of digital nomads’ creativity and motivation in relation to workspace environment

Considering the increase of work-from-home across all sectors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to understand the impact of blurring together work and leisure domains as work-from-home becomes more common. Digital nomads serve as the units of analysis based on their ability to work ‘anytime, anywhere,’ encompassing the group of creatives who work primarily with a laptop and are not unfamiliar to remote working. Most studies investigating creativity in the context of workspace tend to focus on the physical attributes. At the same time, these studies agree that most creative workspaces tend to be more deterministic and contrive a specific approach to creativity than facilitate the creative process. Additional studies also aim to understand the motivational aspects that encourage creatives to pursue a precarious profession under evolving circumstances. To triangulate the relationship between workspace, motivation, and creativity, this predominantly quantitative analysis employed Amabile’s (1996) KEYS measuring creativity within the workspace, Taylor & Kaufman’s (2021) creative trait motivation scales (CTMs), and Chang et al.’s (2018) creativity indicator scale. The survey instrument designed for this study (n = 169) aimed to draw relations between the measurement scales. Findings indicate that workspace does not have a statistically significant influence on creativity and motivation. However, utilizing motivation as a multidimensional concept embodying intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivational factors, yielded a single significant relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity. These findings bolster previous studies inferring creatives to be more intrinsically motivated and provide suggestions on supporting remote workers in the foreseeable future of work. The data collected for this study alludes to a more extensive discussion that workspace is not enough to act as a catalyst for creative motivation. Rather than focus on what physical attributes the space has, this study finds that the four walls serve as a framework that enables individuals to modify their experiences. These fundamental needs lend themselves to Ryan & Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory (SDT), in which the workspace enables the individual needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. These attributes allow digital nomads to craft the environment depending on the stage of the creative process. Statistical findings coinciding with supplementary qualitative data from open answers and focus group interviews expresses a need for reframing work entirely that falls more in line with Latouche’s (2009) notion of degrowth. Degrowth calls for a more sustainable and inclusive creative workforce while embracing creativity born out of spontaneity, looking at the foreseeable economic opportunities in a post-pandemic world.