How does empowering leadership promote employee creativity? The sequential mediating mechanism of felt obligation for constructive change and job crafting

Abstract

Integrating the reciprocity lens and the componential model of creative process, we develop novel theoretical insights regarding how and when empowering leadership promotes employee creativity. In a scenario-based experimental study of 198 participants (Study 1), we found that empowering leadership was positively related to employees' felt obligation for constructive change, especially for employees who had a high level of organizational identification. In a three-wave field survey study of 221 employees and their direct supervisors (Study 2), we found that organizational identification strengthened the positive effects of empowering leadership on employees' felt obligation for constructive change. Furthermore, employees' felt obligation for constructive change was positively associated with job crafting behavior, subsequently employee creativity. Our research generates valuable insights into how and when empowering leadership enhances employee creativity.