Understanding How Leader Humility Enhances Employee Creativity The Roles of Perspective Taking and Cognitive Reappraisal

Although the construct of leader humility has received increased attention in organizational scholarship, there are large gaps in the empirical studies of leader humility and employee creativity. In this study, we find that leader humility substantially contributes to organizational effectiveness in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of applied behavioral science Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 5 - 31
Main Authors Wang, Juan, Zhang, Zhe, Jia, Ming
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2017
Subjects
employee creativity
leader humility
cognitive reappraisal
perspective taking
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ISSN0021-8863
1552-6879
DOI10.1177/0021886316678907

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Summary:Although the construct of leader humility has received increased attention in organizational scholarship, there are large gaps in the empirical studies of leader humility and employee creativity. In this study, we find that leader humility substantially contributes to organizational effectiveness in both normal and crisis situations. Building on social information processing theory and the process model of emotion regulation, we test a model linking leader humility to employee creativity based on 451 member–leader dyads of 129 emergency medical task forces involved in the Wenchuan earthquake. We find that leader humility is positively related to employees’ perspective taking and creativity. We also find that employees’ cognitive reappraisal moderates the relationship between leader humility and employees’ perspective taking, and employees’ perspective taking mediates the interactive effect of leader humility and employees’ cognitive reappraisal on creativity. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
ISSN:0021-8863
1552-6879
DOI:10.1177/0021886316678907