Is a creative leader always helpful? A dependency perspective on the relationship between leader creativity and follower creativity

Abstract Prior studies draw on social learning theory to argue a positive relationship between leader creativity and follower creativity, lending support to the directing approach of leading for creativity. However, our study aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding for this approach by also exploring the negative effects of leader creativity on follower creativity, particularly from a dependency perspective. We investigated the mechanisms and boundary conditions by examining the roles of dependency on the leader, creative effort, and team power distance. With a sample of 136 leaders and 691 followers across four firms in China, we tested our hypotheses using multilevel path analyses. Our findings indicated that leader creativity was positively associated with followers' dependency on leader, and that dependency on leader had a negative indirect relationship with follower creativity via reducing follower creative effort. Overall, leader creativity had a negative indirect relationship with follower creativity through the pathways of increased dependency and decreased creative effort. Furthermore, the negative serial indirect relationship was more pronounced in teams with higher power distance. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed as well.