Paradoxical leadership and employee creativity: The role of cognitive complexity and flexibility

IF 10.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Business Research Pub Date : 2025-06-14 DOI:10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115542

Ying Zhang, Yan Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study aims to examine how and when paradoxical leadership positively influences employee creativity. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we propose that employees’ cognitive processes—specifically cognitive complexity and flexibility—serve as crucial mechanisms linking paradoxical leadership to employee creativity. Furthermore, we investigate the moderating role of employees’ cognitive appraisals in these mediating relationships. We conducted a multi-wave, multi-source field study with 435 supervisor–employee dyads from five firms in China, along with a cross-lagged online study of 355 employees. The results indicate that employees’ cognitive complexity and flexibility mediate the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee creativity. Additionally, we find that challenge appraisal strengthens the relationships between paradoxical leadership and both cognitive complexity and flexibility, whereas hindrance appraisal weakens these relationships. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the cognitive process perspective linking paradoxical leadership to employee creativity.

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矛盾领导与员工创造力：认知复杂性和灵活性的作用

本研究旨在探讨悖论式领导如何以及何时对员工创造力产生积极影响。根据社会认知理论，我们提出员工的认知过程——特别是认知复杂性和灵活性——是连接矛盾领导与员工创造力的关键机制。此外，我们还研究了员工认知评价在这些中介关系中的调节作用。我们对来自中国五家公司的435名主管-员工进行了多波、多来源的实地研究，同时对355名员工进行了交叉滞后的在线研究。结果表明，员工的认知复杂性和灵活性在矛盾领导与员工创造力的关系中起中介作用。此外，我们发现挑战评估强化了悖论型领导与认知复杂性和灵活性之间的关系，而阻碍评估则削弱了这种关系。我们讨论了认知过程视角的理论和实践意义，将悖论式领导与员工创造力联系起来。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Business Research BUSINESS-

CiteScore

20.30

自引率

10.60%

发文量

956

期刊介绍： The Journal of Business Research aims to publish research that is rigorous, relevant, and potentially impactful. It examines a wide variety of business decision contexts, processes, and activities, developing insights that are meaningful for theory, practice, and/or society at large. The research is intended to generate meaningful debates in academia and practice, that are thought provoking and have the potential to make a difference to conceptual thinking and/or practice. The Journal is published for a broad range of stakeholders, including scholars, researchers, executives, and policy makers. It aids the application of its research to practical situations and theoretical findings to the reality of the business world as well as to society. The Journal is abstracted and indexed in several databases, including Social Sciences Citation Index, ANBAR, Current Contents, Management Contents, Management Literature in Brief, PsycINFO, Information Service, RePEc, Academic Journal Guide, ABI/Inform, INSPEC, etc.