The Double-edged Sword Effect of Leader Critical Thinking on Team Creativity

Abstract

Drawing on the component model of creativity, we test the processes through which leader critical thinking might influence team creativity and the boundary conditions. We argue that two team processes necessary for team creativity, including team willingness to take risks and team information elaboration, link leader critical thinking and team creativity. Specifically, these two processes act in a paradoxical way such that leader critical thinking may reduce team creativity via decreasing team willingness to take risks, while enhance team creativity via promoting team information elaboration. In addition, we propose that these effects are contingent on leader’s use of two types of power – reward power and coercive power. In particular, leader’s use of reward power may mitigate the negative effect of leader critical thinking on team willingness to take risks, and its positive effect on team information elaboration; while leader’s use of coercive power may strengthen the negative effect of leader critical thinking on team willingness to take risks, as well as its positive effect on team information elaboration. After developing and validating the measurement of critical thinking (Study 1), we tested the hypotheses using a two-wave design with field data from a large technology company (Study 2). Our results supported all the hypotheses except for the moderating effect of leader’s use of reward power in the relationship between leader critical thinking and team information elaboration. The findings offer interesting theoretical and practical implications for critical thinking and team creativity.