How Does Leader-Member Exchange Affect Employee Creativity? The Role of Felt Responsibility for Change

Abstract

Leadership is an important factor influencing employee creativity. Previous studies have investigated the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory in relation to employee creativity and have found it to yield inconsistent results indicating the occurrence of a mediator between the variables. The present study aims to investigate the role of felt responsibility for change in the LMX-creativity relationship with reference to the social exchange theory. Data were collected using the convenience sampling technique from a sample of 239 employees and from 31 supervisors working in the marketing division of varied types of organizations (banking, manufacture, and service facilities) in Indonesia. The data were analyzed using Hayes' PROCESS macro on the SPSS software. The results revealed that felt responsibility for change significantly took the role of a mediator in the LMX-creativity relationship. The outcomes of this study also demonstrated that felt responsibility for change fully mediated the relationship, as the direct effect of LMX on employee creativity became nonsignificant when the mediator was included in the model.