Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T17:31:23.398Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When empowering leadership fosters creative performance: The role of problem-solving demands and creative personality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

Mieke Audenaert  and
Adelien Decramer
Mieke Audenaert*
Affiliation:
Department HRM and Organizational Behavior, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Adelien Decramer
Affiliation:
Department HRM and Organizational Behavior, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
*
Corresponding author: Mieke.Audenaert@Ugent.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the circumstances under which empowering leadership fosters creative performance. Arguments were developed for a three-way interaction of empowering leadership, problem-solving demands and creative personality in this linkage. These arguments resulted in competing hypotheses from a fit and a compensation perspective. The results from a survey of 213 employees of a Flemish large industrial organization were used. We found that less creative employees in jobs with high problem-solving demands particularly benefit from empowering leadership. This paper adds to a more complex understanding of the effectiveness of empowering leadership by highlighting the relevance of the simultaneous interplay of contextual and personal factors.

Keywords

creative performanceempowering leadershipproblem-solving demandscreative personality
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 4 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahearne, M., Mathieu, J., & Rapp, A. (2005). To empower or not to empower your sales force? An empirical examination of the influence of leadership empowerment behavior on customer satisfaction and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(5), 945–955.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(2), 357–376.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. M., Schatzel, E. A., Moneta, G. B., & Kramer, S. J. (2004). Leader behaviors and the work environment for creativity: Perceived leader support. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(1), 5–32.Google Scholar
Anderson, N., Potočnik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. Journal of Management, 40(5), 1297–1333.Google Scholar
Audenaert, M., Vanderstraeten, A., & Buyens, D. (2014). Does alignment elicit competency-based HRM? A systematic review. Management Revue, 25(1), 5–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D. J. (1988). Task complexity: A review and analysis. The Academy of Management Review, 13(1), 40–52.Google Scholar
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2013). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cook, C., Heath, F., & Thompson, R. L. (2000). A metaanalysis of response rates in web- or internet-based surveys. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60(6), 821–836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, J. F. (2014). Moderation in management research: What, why, when, and how. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(1), 1–19.Google Scholar
Dawson, J. F., & Richter, A. W. (2006). Probing three-way interactions in moderated multiple regression: Development and application of a slope difference test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 917–926.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Decramer, A., Smolders, C., & Vanderstraeten, A. (2012). Employee performance management culture and system features in higher education: Relationship with employee performance management satisfaction. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(2), 352–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farmer, S. M., Tierney, P., & Kung-McIntyre, K. (2003). Employee creativity in Taiwan: An application of role identity theory. Academy of Management Journal, 46(5), 618–630.Google Scholar
Feist, G. J. (1998). A meta-analysis of personality in scientific and artistic creativity. Personality and social psychology review, 2(4), 290–309.Google Scholar
Ford, C. M. (1996). A theory of individual creative action in multiple social domains. Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 1112–1142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, R. C., & Fottler, M. D. (1995). Empowerment: A matter of degree. The Academy of Management Executive, 9(3), 21–29.Google Scholar
George, J. M., & Zhou, J. (2001). When openness to experience and conscientiousness are related to creative behavior: An interactional approach. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 513–524.Google Scholar
Gough, H. G. (1979). A Creative Personality Scale for the Adjective Check List. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(8), 1398–1405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hair, J. Jr., Money, A., Samouel, P., & Page, M. (2007). Research methods for business. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Google Scholar
Hammond, M. M., Neff, N. L., Farr, J. L., Schwall, A. R., & Zhao, X. (2011). Predictors of individual-level innovation at work: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5(1), 90–105.Google Scholar
Harman, H. H. (1976). Modern factor analysis. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Helson, R. (1996). In search of the creative personality. Creativity Research Journal, 9(4), 295–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hersey, P., Blanchard, K. H., & Natemeyer, W. E. (1979). Situational leadership, perception, and the impact of power. Group & Organization Management, 4(4), 418–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
House, R. J. (1996). Path-goal theory of leadership: Lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 7(3), 323–352.Google Scholar
Humborstad, S. I. W., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2014). Empowering leadership, employee goal orientations and work performance: A competing hypothesis approach. Personnel Review, 43(2), 246–271.Google Scholar
Humphrey, S. E., Nahrgang, J. D., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1332–1356.Google Scholar
Judge, T. A., Klinger, R., Simon, L. S., & Yang, I. W. F. (2008). The contributions of personality to organizational behavior and psychology: Findings, criticisms, and future research directions. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(5), 1982–2000.Google Scholar
Levinson, H., Price, C. R., Munden, K. J., Mandl, H. J., & Solley, C. M. (1962). Men, management and mental health. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lindgren, R., Henfridsson, O., & Schultze, U. (2004). Design principles for competence management systems: A synthesis of an action research study. MIS Quarterly, 28(3), 435–472.Google Scholar
Liu, W., Lepak, D. P., Takeuchi, R., & Sims, H. P. (2003). Matching leadership styles with employment modes: Strategic human resource management perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 13(1), 127–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovelace, K. J., Manz, C. C., & Alves, J. C. (2007). Work stress and leadership development: The role of self-leadership, shared leadership, physical fitness and flow in managing demands and increasing job control. Human Resource Management Review, 17(4), 374–387.Google Scholar
McClelland, G. H., & Judd, C. M. (1993). Statistical difficulties of detecting interactions and moderator effects. Psychological Bulletin, 114(2), 376–390.Google Scholar
Morgeson, F. P., & Humphrey, S. E. (2006). The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): Developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(6), 1321–1339.Google Scholar
Ng, T. W., & Feldman, D. C. (2012). A comparison of self-ratings and non-self-report measures of employee creativity. Human Relations, 65(8), 1021–1047.Google Scholar
Nishii, L. H., & Wright, P. M. (2008). Variability at multiple levels of analysis: Implications for strategic human resource management. In D. Smith (Ed.), The people make the place (pp. 225–248). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ohly, S., Sonnentag, S., & Pluntke, F. (2006). Routinization, work characteristics and their relationships with creative and proactive behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(3), 257–279.Google Scholar
Oldham, G. R., & Cummings, A. (1996). Employee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at work. Academy of Management Journal, 39(3), 607–634.Google Scholar
Pearce, C. L., & Sims, H. P. (2001). Shared leadership: Toward a multi-level theory of leadership. Advances in Interdisciplinary Studies of Work Teams, 7, 115–139.Google Scholar
Perry, S. J., Witt, L. A., Penney, L. M., & Atwater, L. (2010). The downside of goal-focused leadership: The role of personality in subordinate exhaustion. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(6), 1145–1153.Google Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539–569.Google Scholar
Raja, U., & Johns, G. (2010). The joint effects of personality and job scope on in-role performance, citizenship behaviors, and creativity. Human Relations, 63(7), 981–1005.Google Scholar
Rodan, S., & Galunic, C. (2004). More than network structure: How knowledge heterogeneity influences managerial performance and innovativeness. Strategic Management Journal, 25(6), 541–562.Google Scholar
Seibert, S. E., Silver, S. R., & Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to the next level: A multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3), 332–349.Google Scholar
Shalley, C. E., Gilson, L. L., & Blum, T. C. (2009). Interactive effects of growth need strength, work context, and job complexity on self-reported creative performance. Academy of Management Journal, 52(3), 489–505.Google Scholar
Shalley, C. E., Zhou, J., & Oldham, G. R. (2004). The effects of personal and contextual characteristics on creativity: Where should we go from here? Journal of Management, 30(6), 933–958.Google Scholar
Sharma, P. N., & Kirkman, B. L. (2015). Leveraging leaders: A literature review and future lines of inquiry for empowering leadership research. Group & Organization Management, 40(2), 193–237.Google Scholar
Siemsen, E., Roth, A., & Oliveira, P. (2010). Common method bias in regression models with linear, quadratic, and interaction effects. Organizational Research Methods, 13(3), 456–476.Google Scholar
Sims, H. P. Jr., Faraj, S., & Yun, S. (2009). When should a leader be directive or empowering? How to develop your own situational theory of leadership. Business Horizons, 52(2), 149–158.Google Scholar
Srivastava, A., Bartol, K. M., & Locke, E. A. (2006). Empowering leadership in management teams: Effects on knowledge sharing, efficacy, and performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49(6), 1239–1251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vecchio, R. P., Justin, J. E., & Pearce, C. L. (2010). Empowering leadership: An examination of mediating mechanisms within a hierarchical structure. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 530–542.Google Scholar
Volmer, J., Spurk, D., & Niessen, C. (2012). Leader–member exchange (LMX), job autonomy, and creative work involvement. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(3), 456–465.Google Scholar
Wall, T. D., Cordery, J. L., & Clegg, C. W. (2002). Empowerment, performance, and operational uncertainty: A theoretical integration. Applied Psychology, 51(1), 146–169.Google Scholar
Woodman, R. W., Sawyer, J. E., & Griffin, R. W. (1993). Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, 18(2), 293–321.Google Scholar
Zhang, X., & Bartol, K. M. (2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53(1), 107–128.Google Scholar
Zhang, X., & Zhou, J. (2014). Empowering leadership, uncertainty avoidance, trust, and employee creativity: Interaction effects and a mediating mechanism. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 124(2), 150–164.Google Scholar
Zhou, J., & George, J. M. (2001). When job dissatisfaction leads to creativity: Encouraging the expression of voice. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 682–696.Google Scholar
Zhou, J., & Hoever, I. J. (2014). Research on workplace creativity: A review and redirection. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 333–359.Google Scholar
Zhou, J., & Oldham, G. R. (2001). Enhancing creative performance: Effects of expected developmental assessment strategies and creative personality. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 35(3), 151–167.Google Scholar
Zhou, K. Z., & Wu, F. (2010). Technological capability, strategic flexibility, and product innovation. Strategic Management Journal, 31(5), 547–561.Google Scholar
Zhou, Q., Hirst, G., & Shipton, H. (2012). Promoting creativity at work: The role of problem‐solving demand. Applied Psychology, 61(1), 56–80.Google Scholar