Dual pathways of emotional competence towards incremental and radical creativity: resource caravans through feedback-seeking frequency and breadth

This study examined how employees' emotional competence predicts feedback-seeking behaviour (FSB) and consequently incremental and radical creativity on the basis of conservation of resource (COR) theory. We posit that emotional competence enhances the two types of creativity by generating resource caravans through distinct patterns of FSB. Our analysis based on the data collected from 206 employees from 85 work teams revealed that emotional competence has a significant indirect effect on the incremental creativity of team members, as rated by leaders, through frequent feedback seeking. Emotional competence also exhibited a considerable direct effect on radical creativity. In addition, emotional competence predicted source variety, namely, feedback-seeking breadth, which in turn contributed to radical creativity. This study offers new and useful theoretical and practical insights regarding the different types of creativity in the workplace by employing COR theory and the resource caravan perspective.