Does subordinate moqi ignite employee creativity? The role of self-efficacy and face consciousness

Purpose Drawing on the self-concept-based theory, this study aims to consider subordinate moqi as a source of forming self-concept to develop a conceptual model to examine the relationships between subordinate moqi and employee creativity, including self-efficacy as a mediator and face consciousness as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted and 188 subordinate-supervisor paired samples were collected in China. This paper applied the multiple linear regression method to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings Results show that subordinate moqi is positively related to employee creativity, and employee self-efficacy mediates the positive relationship between subordinate moqi and employee creativity. Additionally, face consciousness moderates the positive effect of self-efficacy on employee creativity and the indirect effect of subordinate moqi on employee creativity via employee self-efficacy. Practical implications These findings suggest that employees, managers and organizations should foster subordinate moqi, especially for the managers whose subordinates have low-level creativity. Moreover, fostering subordinate moqi can enhancing employee self-efficacy and further promote employee creativity. Additionally, our findings show the moderating role of face consciousness. That is, face consciousness can be regarded as a management tool to inspire employees’ intrinsic motivation to achieve goal tasks. Especially in the Chinese context, the face culture is quite prominent. Originality/value The findings provide empirical evidence on how and when subordinate moqi promote employee creativity. This study enriches our understanding of subordinate moqi.