How Does Leadership Influence Follower Creativity? - The Role of Follower Identifications and Perceived Organizational Support -

The importance of creativity to an organization and society is undeniable, simultaneously, leadership is a key factor affecting the creativity of followers within an organization. Based on the clarification of the concepts and dimensions of transformational leadership and transactional leadership, this paper examined follower identifications as a mediator and employees’ perceptions of organizational support as a moderator in the relationship between leadership and follower creativity. Using a sample of 242 employees who engaged in manufacturing working in Beijing and Shanghai, China, we found that most of our hypotheses were supported. Specifically, results showed that follower identifications mediate the positive influence relationship between leadership on follower creativity, and follower’s perceived organizational support moderate both transformational leadership and transactional leadership in the relationship with follower relational identification. Implications of the findings, Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.