Fear of Losing Power and Malevolent Creativity in Organizational Leaders: The Moderating Role of Power as Responsibility

Leader's fear of power loss may motivate novel antisocial behavior toward employees. In this study, we hypothesized a positive relationship between leader's fear of power loss and leader's engagement in malevolent creativity toward employees (i.e., creativity used for harming employees). We also hypothesized that this relationship is moderated by how leaders' construe power, either as an opportunity or as a responsibility. Study 1, a time-lagged field study, measured fear of power loss and power construal at T1, and malevolent creativity behavior at T2. In Study 2, a time-lagged field experiment measured power construal at T1, manipulated fear of power loss at T2, and assessed leaders' malevolent creativity potential using a performance-based malevolent creativity task. Study 2 further tested the mediating role of leader's anger in the hypothesized relationships. Results largely supported our hypotheses: They highlighted the moderating role of power construed as responsibility in the relationship between fear of power loss and malevolent creativity (Study 1), and the mediating role of leaders' anger (Study 2). Power construed as an opportunity did not moderate the effect of fear of power loss. This research advances our understanding of leadership dynamics and their impact on organizational outcomes from the perspective of dark creativity.