BUSINESS CREATIVITY AND THE CREATIVE ECONOMY, 5 (2) 2022 Article 1 | pages 34-53
Issue Copyright © 2022 Tinkr
Article Copyright © 2022 Chun-Yang Lee & Aichia Chuang
ISSN: 2334-1149 online
DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.04
How Humble Leaders Foster Employee Creativity: A Cross-Level Path Model
Chun-Yang Lee
School of International Business
Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College
Zhangzhou Campus of Xiamen University
Zhangzhou China Merchants
Economic and Technological Development Zone
Aichia Chuang
Department of Management
Bryan School of Business and Economics
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Abstract
Drawing on social information-processing theory and the status-and-engagement perspective, a field study investigated the pathways through which team leader humility leads to employee creativity. Using a sample of 347 high-tech workers nested in 95 teams and their supervisors, this research theorized a multilevel model with data from multiple waves and sources. The results indicated that, at the individual level, leader humility perceived by individual employees boosted the employees’ self-perceived status, which then promoted employee creativity. At the team level, leader humility created a team voice safety climate, which then had a positive cross- level impact on team members’ creativity. This bridges the creativity and the leader humility literature by extending the social information-processing perspective of leader humility to integrate this perspective with research on individuals’ desire to develop and maintain a status and positive identity. Theoretical implications of these results and practical implications for management practices were discussed.
Chun-Yang Lee | School of International Business at Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College | Zhangzhou, Fujian Prov- ince, P.R. China 363105 | [https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1080-5297]
Aichia Chuang | Department of Management | University of North Carolina at Greensboro | 365 Bryan Building
516 Stirling Street, Greensboro, NC 27412 | E-mail: achuang@uncg.edu | [https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3849-219X ] Correspondence: Chun-Yang Lee | leecy@xujc.com
Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.