Empowering Leadership and Employee Innovative Behavior: The Role of Creative Role Identity

Abstract

This empirical study examined both the mediating effect of creative role identity and the moderating effect of promotion focus on the relationship between empowering leadership and employee innovative behavior. Research models and hypotheses were established based on previous studies that explored empowering leadership, creative role identity, employee innovative behavior and promotion focus. It was confirmed that empowering leadership had a direct effect on employee innovative behavior and an indirect effect through the partially mediating variant of creative role identity. The study also confirmed that the lower an employee's promotion focus, the greater the effect of empowering leadership on creative role identity. The results of this study are significant because it verified the mechanism of identity perspective and expanded the literature on the effect of empowering leadership on employee innovative behavior. In particular, the creative role identity formed through leader's expectations, interactions, and employee's self-conceptualization of individual roles mediates the influence of empowering leadership on employee innovative behavior. At the same time, empowering leadership can influence employee innovative behavior differently depending on an employee's individual characteristic. Accordingly, continuous interaction for nurturing an employee's creative role identity rather than simple task instruction or delegation of authority is strongly recommended. Similarly, managers should demonstrate consistent interest in employee creative role identity as well as empowering leadership in order to encourage innovative behavior among employees.