Examining Leader-Member Exchange as a Moderator of the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Creativity of Software Developers

Abstract

This paper investigates how leader-member exchange (LMX) and emotional intelligence (EI) are associated with employees' creativity in high-tech firms. We develop a model that considers LMX and EI as predictors of creativity with LMX as a boundary condition for the relationship between EI and creativity. Results reveal that LMX is a strong predictor of creativity. However, EI does not directly affect creativity. More interestingly, the interaction between EI and LMX negatively influences creativity such that EI is detrimental for creativity only when LMX is high. Thus, the role of LMX for employees' creativity may be paradoxical. Further, the positive role of EI reported in current literature may be overly simplistic, and its role may be contingent on the quality of LMX and the other context.

Are Emotionally Intelligent People More Creative? A Meta-Analysis of the Emotional Intelligence–Creativity Link

“…Existing findings on gender differences in the relationship between EI and creativity are contradictory. Although some studies found high correlations between EI and creativity in samples mainly consisting of males [37,65], other studies found relatively low correlations between the constructs in majority-male samples [28,29]. Considering these inconsistencies in the findings, we cannot exclude the possibility that gender may moderate the relationship between EI and creativity.…”

“…The underlying logic to this argument is that EI reflects the ability to reach consensus and produce normative solutions to social and emotional situations, while creativity conversely reflects the ability to break from routines, think flexibly, and formulate unique ideas [21,22]. In line with this theoretic explanation, a number of studies have found null associations between EI and creativity [21,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. For instance, Ivcevic, Brackett, and Mayer [21] examined the relationships between EI, creativity, and emotional creativity and, while they uncovered positive associations between emotional creativity and both self-reported and performance-based creativity measures, they did not find any significant associations between EI and creativity measures.…”

Scale indicators of social exchange relationships: A comparison of relative content validity.

“…Exchange quality. We used a version of Scandura and Graen's (1984) exchange quality scale that was adapted to have Likert-style anchors instead of idiosyncratic anchors (Lee, Scandura, Kim, Joshi, & Lee, 2012;Liden, Wayne, & Stillwell, 1993;Tekleab & Taylor, 2003).…”

Effects of Leader-Member Exchange, Interpersonal Relationship, Individual Feeling of Energy and Creative Work Involvement Towards Turnover Intention: A Path Analysis Using Structural Equation Modeling

“…The study adapted six items from Lee, Scandura, Kim, Joshi, and Lee (2012) to measure LMX. Sample items include "My Leader recognizes my potential well enough," and "I can depend on my supervisor at his expense when I really need it".…”