Abstract
This article examines how Korean leaders in a hierarchical society would trigger employees’ creativity and voice behavior through an indigenous leadership style: Korean leadership style (KLS). KLS exhibits heavily relationship-oriented behaviors, including attending to superiors’ needs and requests, building a positive reputation and trust of peers, and embracing and sheltering subordinates. Jeong, a shared group affect ingrained in Korean society, and woori, a shared feeling of belongingness dedifferentiating individuals constituting the collective, provide a fertile ground for this unique leadership style. Building upon the literature on group affect and collective energy, we explore how the affective mechanism mediates the positive relationships between KLS and employees’ creativity and voice behaviors. The findings from the empirical study of 340 leader–follower paired data points confirm the positive relationships between relationship-oriented Korean leader behaviors and employees’ creativity and voice behavior and that, for creativity, the link is partially mediated by positive affect with high energy.
Highlights
The literature on leadership has accumulated a wide range of theories on what constitutes effective leadership over a century of study
Addressing this need, the primary goal of this research is to contribute to the advancement of the indigenous leadership research inherent within the local cultural context by focusing on the Korean leadership style (KLS)—a set of relationship-oriented leader behaviors
Because our interest was on the affective mechanism, we focused on the first set of eight items on positive affect with high energy in the analysis
Summary
The literature on leadership has accumulated a wide range of theories on what constitutes effective leadership over a century of study. Research on indigenous leadership is becoming a necessity in understanding leadership within the unique societal and cultural context of a particular region or country (Kempster & Parry, 2011; Tsui, 2004). Addressing this need, the primary goal of this research is to contribute to the advancement of the indigenous leadership research inherent within the local cultural context by focusing on the Korean leadership style (KLS)—a set of relationship-oriented leader behaviors J. Choi & Choi, 2002; Rhee, Uleman, & Lee, 1996; Yang, 2006; Yang & Horak, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
