Authoritarian leadership and employee creativity: The moderating role of psychological capital and the mediating role of fear and defensive silence

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the relationship between exchange ideology and employee creativity based on the social exchange perspective. It also attempts to examine the mediating role of perceived shared leadership and the moderating role of vertical moral leadership.Design/methodology/approachMultilevel and multisource data were collected from 56 research and development (R&D) teams with 306 employees. Hypotheses were tested with multilevel path analysis.FindingsThe authors found that exchange ideology was negatively related to both perceived shared leadership and employee creativity, and perceived shared leadership mediated the relationship between exchange ideology and employee creativity. Moreover, we revealed that vertical moral leadership buffered the negative relationship between employee exchange ideology and perceived shared leadership and also the indirect effect of exchange ideology on employee creativity via perceived shared leadership.Research limitations/implicationsOrganizations should select employees with a relatively weak exchange ideology when forming teams to conduct creative tasks. Moreover, team leaders should make great efforts to facilitate the development of shared leadership among team members while to be a moral leader.Originality/valueThis study extends creativity literature by investigating the effect of exchange ideology on employee creativity. It also sheds lights on leadership research by examining the mediating role of perceived shared leadership and the moderating role of vertical moral leadership.

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How is Benevolent Leadership Linked to Employee Creativity? The Mediating Role of Leader–Member Exchange and the Moderating Role of Power Distance Orientation

Journal of Business Ethics ◽

10.1007/s10551-016-3314-4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 152 (4) ◽

pp. 1099-1115 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Weipeng Lin ◽

Jingjing Ma ◽

Qi Zhang ◽

Jenny Chen Li ◽

Feng Jiang

Keyword(s):

Power Distance ◽

Leader Member Exchange ◽

Employee Creativity ◽

Power Distance Orientation ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Benevolent Leadership ◽

Member Exchange ◽

Moderating Role

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Abusive Supervision and Creativity: Investigating the Moderating Role of Performance Improvement Attribution and the Mediating Role of Psychological Availability

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.658743 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Can Wang ◽

Yongchang Wei ◽

Xuan Zhao ◽

Xuan Zhang ◽

Ye Peng

Keyword(s):

Performance Improvement ◽

Detrimental Effect ◽

Abusive Supervision ◽

Employee Creativity ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Resource Perspective ◽

The Relationship ◽

Moderating Role ◽

Specific Impact

The existing studies have indicated that abusive supervision affects creativity; however, the specific impact mechanism is still unclear due to the uncertain relationship between leadership and employee creativity. Based on the resource perspective, this study examines the influence of abusive supervision on creativity through psychological availability (PA) and the moderating of this mediation by performance improvement attribution (PIA). Based on a survey of 234 employees', the hypotheses have been tested and the results reveal that abusive supervision had a detrimental effect on employee creativity partially mediated by employee PA, and employees' PIA moderated the mediation. This study offers new insights into the mechanisms associated with the relationship between abusive supervision and creativity.

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