Transformational leadership and employee creativity: The mediating role of promotion focus and creative process engagement

Nils Henker, Sabine Sonnentag, Dana Unger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

147 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose: The paper aims at investigating the processes underlying the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity. We hypothesized that promotion focus mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity and that creative process engagement mediates the relationship between promotion focus and employee creativity.

Design/Methodology/Approach: We conducted a three-wave longitudinal study with 279 employees and used a path-modeling approach to test our hypotheses.

Findings: Our results provide support for a sequential mediation model. Promotion focus mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity. Creative process engagement partially mediated the relationship between promotion focus and employee creativity.

Implications: Findings of this study help to understand how transformational leadership fosters creativity by highlighting the role of promotion focus and creative process engagement. Understanding the relationship between transformational leadership and creativity helps supervisors to create a work environment that fosters employee creativity.

Originality/Value: This study contributes to the literature by identifying the mediating mechanism for the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity and providing a comprehensive model that illustrates the importance of the different stages within the creative process as antecedents of employee creativity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-247
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Business and Psychology
Volume30
Issue number2
Early online date5 Mar 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2015

Keywords

  • Transformational leadership
  • Creativity
  • Regulatory Focus Theory
  • Creative process engagement

Cite this