Does leadership humility foster salesperson creativity? The serial mediating role of job satisfaction and knowledge sharing

Purpose

This study clarifies the mediating effects of job satisfaction and knowledge sharing on the relationship between leadership humility and salesperson creativity. It also shows how job satisfaction mediates between leadership humility and knowledge sharing.

Design/methodology/approach

This study sampled 380 salespeople in Japan’s financial sector to participate in a two-wave online survey. The partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results of the partial least squares structural equation modeling showed that the serial mediating effect of leadership humility on salesperson creativity through job satisfaction and knowledge sharing was statistically significant. The supplementary analysis showed that leadership humility had a curvilinear effect on salesperson creativity.

Research limitations/implications

The findings were restricted to salespeople employed in Japan’s financial sector.

Practical implications

Contrary to previous meta-analytic studies, the mere presence of humble leaders is insufficient to induce salesperson creativity.

Originality/value

This study is the first to deeply elucidate the underlying mechanism between leadership humility and salesperson creativity and examine the curvilinear relationship between leadership humility and salesperson creativity.