Empowering leadership and employee creativity: A dual‐mechanism perspective

Abstract

Integrating empowerment and creativity theories, this study simultaneously explores the context‐specific (i.e., access to resources [AR] and access to information [AI]) and actor‐related (i.e., organization‐based self‐esteem [ OBSE ]) mechanisms in the relationship between empowering leadership and employee creativity. Furthermore, drawing on the interactionist perspective of creativity, it examines how AR and AI may interact with OBSE to influence creativity. Multisource data were collected from 217 employees and their supervisors using a three‐wave, time‐lagged research design. The results reveal that OBSE and AR mediate the relationship between empowering leadership and creativity. Moreover, AR moderates the relationship between OBSE and creativity, such that this relationship is significant only when AR is high. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Practitioner points Empowering leaders may stimulate creativity by impacting their employees' OBSE and access to resources. A possible way for leaders to facilitate creativity is to simultaneously promote employees' OBSE and provide them with the necessary resources