Developing adaptive leadership in post-information societies: The possible role of creative orientation, identity and metacognition

Abstract

This paper expands on creativity theories to enhance the understanding of leaders’ psychological resources in effectively adapting themselves and steering their employees to adapt to organisational change. Creativity is an essential skill for effective leadership. Creative leaders can motivate their teams more effectively and can handle novel challenges by being more flexible in going outside the typical routines. Yet, how do leaders understand and act on their creativity in dealing with change? How do leaders recognise their people’s creativity? This paper introduces three personal resources – creative orientation, identity and metacognition – as psychological mechanisms that reflect leaders’ abilities to notice, interpret and act on opportunities to respond to shifting workplaces. I hypothesise that leaders can develop two creative orientations while leading change – focus on strengthening their social network and focus on taking new action. Also, the paper argues for the importance of leaders’ creative identity and hypothesizes that leaders can deliberately enact their creative identities in their roles, based on two ways to understand their creativity: as a way of thinking or as a personality type. Lastly, leaders’ creative metacognition can empower followers’ creativity.