To read this content please select one of the options below:

Linking paternalistic leadership to employee creativity: a meaning-based perspective

Jinyun Duan (Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China)
Xiaotian Wang (Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China)
Ye Liu (Department of Psychology, School of Sociology, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China)
Lifeng Han (Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 28 December 2023

Issue publication date: 26 March 2024

351

Abstract

Purpose

Integrating the pathway model of meaningful work and the intrinsic motivation principle of creativity, the authors investigate why, when and how paternalistic leadership relates to employee creativity in the Chinese organizational context. The authors suggest that the meaning of work (MOW) mediates the relationship between paternalistic leadership and employee creativity. The authors further identify perspective taking as a moderator in the mediated relationship for the path from MOW to creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors relied on a sample of 340 employee-supervisor dyads collected from multiple organizations located in Eastern China to test the study hypotheses.

Findings

Results indicated that MOW mediated the positive relationships between the benevolence and morality dimensions of paternalistic leadership and employee creativity, and the negative relationship between the authoritarianism dimension of paternalistic leadership and employee creativity. Further, the indirect relationships between the three dimensions of paternalistic leadership (i.e. authoritarianism, benevolence and morality) and employee creativity through MOW were more pronounced when perspective taking was higher rather than lower.

Originality/value

Through a meaning-based perspective, the authors demonstrate that a culture-specific managerial philosophy (i.e. paternalistic leadership) shapes Chinese employees' perceptions of meaningful work and their subsequent creative performance. This paper complements the dominant focus on Western leadership in the creativity literature and denotes that paternalistic leadership matters for employee creativity in Chinese organizations.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 72072058; 72002217]; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences [GJ202008].

Citation

Duan, J., Wang, X., Liu, Y. and Han, L. (2024), "Linking paternalistic leadership to employee creativity: a meaning-based perspective", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-11-2021-0497

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles