Looking at Both Sides of the Social Exchange Coin: A Social Cognitive Perspective on the Joint Effects of Relationship Quality and Differentiation on Creativity

Abstract

We propose a cross-level contingent process model based on social cognitive theory to explain how and when the quality of social exchange relationships with a supervisor (leader-member exchange; LMX) and fellow team members (team-member exchange; TMX) affect individual creativity in work teams. Using longitudinal, multisource data for 828 employees on 116 teams, we found LMX and TMX had unique indirect effects on employee creativity via self-efficacy. Further, moderated path analysis revealed LMX differentiation attenuated LMX quality's direct effect on self-efficacy and indirect effect on creativity, whereas TMX differentiation augmented TMX quality's direct effect on self-efficacy and indirect effect on creativity.