The relationship between empowering leadership and radical creativity

Abstract

Drawing on the conservation of resource theory, we theorized and tested a serial mediation model linking empowering leadership with employee radical creativity through job control and willingness to take risks. We tested our hypotheses using data collected from a time-lagged and multisource survey of 385 employees in 84 research and development teams from 20 different companies. The results demonstrated that empowering leadership had a positive indirect effect on employee radical creativity via job control and willingness to take risks, and the error management climate was found to strengthen this indirect effect. Theoretical and practical implications are also provided in the discussion section.

Empowering leadership questionnaire: Brazilian adaptation and validation

“…The relationship between empowerment and innovation (mentioned earlier; Spreitzer, 1997) is another benefit of empowering leadership. Empowered workers who feel they can express what they think (voice behaviour) can feel more confident, express their creativity and their innovative work behaviour (Amundsen and Martinsen, 2015; Chow, 2018; Kim and Beehr, 2022; Lee et al , 2020; Özaralli, 2015; Tian and Zhang, 2020; Yin and Liu, 2022; Zhang and Bartol, 2010; Zhang et al , 2018; Zhang and Zhou, 2014). Spreitzer and Doneson (2008) refer to positive deviant behaviours and increased resilience as positive consequences of empowerment at work.…”