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Participative leadership and employee creativity: a sequential mediation model of psychological safety and creative process engagement

Lu Chen (School of Management and Economics, Centre for West African Studies, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China) (China Academy of Corporate Governance, Nankai University, Tianjin, China)
Kwame Ansong Wadei (School of Management and Economics, Centre for West African Studies, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China)
Shuaijiao Bai (College of Management Science, Chengdu University of Science and Technology, Chengdu, China)
Jun Liu (Business School, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 6 July 2020

Issue publication date: 18 July 2020

3706

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon social information processing theory to examine the sequential mediating roles of psychological safety and creative process engagement between participative leadership on creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a time-lagged sample of 526 supervisor–subordinate dyads from R&D teams of five enterprises located in the southwest part of China, we tested the theoretical model using structural equation modelling (SEM) as well as with the MPLUS 7.0 software.

Findings

Results indicated that participative leadership is positively related to creative process engagement; psychological safety significantly mediates the relationship between participative leadership and creative process engagement; creative process engagement significantly mediates the relationship between psychological safety and employee creativity; psychological safety and creative process engagement sequentially mediates the relationship between participative leadership and creativity.

Practical implications

The study findings imply that the participative leadership behaviors of managers or supervisor's nurtures employees psychological safety to take risk and promotes employee engagement in creativity relevant ventures leading to creativity.

Originality/value

The findings contribute new knowledge on the relationship between participative leadership and creativity by uncovering the causal chain of a cognitive mechanism (psychological safety) with a behavioral mechanism (creative process engagement).

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71472024, No. 72072019, No. 71533002 & No. 71372160), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. ZYGX2020FRJH012). We thank Li Huang for assistance in data collection, analyzes and theory development for earlier version of this manuscript. Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Lu Chen (chenlu@uestc.edu.cn).

Citation

Chen, L., Wadei, K.A., Bai, S. and Liu, J. (2020), "Participative leadership and employee creativity: a sequential mediation model of psychological safety and creative process engagement", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 41 No. 6, pp. 741-759. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-07-2019-0319

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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