Creative leaders promote creative organizations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of leaders’ creativity as a predictor of organizational creativity. The authors expected that creative leaders would promote creativity directly by functioning as a model and inspiration for their followers and indirectly by promoting a creativity‐supporting work climate. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted in organizations within the restaurant sector; the data were obtained using questionnaires to employees and leaders ( n =207), as well as external raters’ evaluation of restaurant creativity level. Responses from each organization were aggregated using mean scores ( n =39). Findings Significant positive associations were found between leaders’ creative behavior, organizational creative climates, and organizational creative behavior. Mediation analyses revealed that the relationship between leaders’ creative behavior and organizational creativity was mediated by organizational creative climate. Practical implications The results may provide useful guidelines for organizations that put emphasis on creativity, both for leader recruitment and leader development. Originality/value The paper contributes to the creativity literature since it is one of the first to explore leader personality and leader creative behavior as predictors of creativity in organizations.