TY - JOUR
T1 - Leader Regulatory Goal Setting and Employee Creativity
AU - Janssen, Onne
AU - Vriend, Tim
AU - Said, Ramzi
AU - Nijstad, Bernard
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Organizational Behavior published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024/12/22
Y1 - 2024/12/22
N2 - Recent research suggests that leaders can influence employee creativity by shaping their followers' regulatory focus (promotion or prevention). We propose that this work has overlooked the nature of the regulatory goals (maximal or minimal) that leaders set for their followers. We performed two studies to test this: a vignette-based experiment with 297 participants and a time-lagged, multisource field survey involving 335 leader-employee pairs across various Dutch organizations. Across the two studies, findings reveal that leaders who set maximal goals—emphasizing gains, advancement, and aspirations—significantly enhance their followers' creativity by boosting their promotion focus and intrinsic motivation for creativity. However, leaders who set minimal goals—emphasizing loss avoidance, security, and duty fulfillment—tend to suppress creativity among their followers due to an increased prevention focus and a propensity to conform to the leader's directives. Our novel concept of leader regulatory goal setting demonstrates incremental predictive validity beyond the effects of conventional transformational and transactional leadership styles. Our findings enrich the comprehension of the motivational interplay in leader-follower exchanges and their creative consequences. Furthermore, this research offers valuable strategies for crafting leadership interventions that effectively stimulate employee creativity.
AB - Recent research suggests that leaders can influence employee creativity by shaping their followers' regulatory focus (promotion or prevention). We propose that this work has overlooked the nature of the regulatory goals (maximal or minimal) that leaders set for their followers. We performed two studies to test this: a vignette-based experiment with 297 participants and a time-lagged, multisource field survey involving 335 leader-employee pairs across various Dutch organizations. Across the two studies, findings reveal that leaders who set maximal goals—emphasizing gains, advancement, and aspirations—significantly enhance their followers' creativity by boosting their promotion focus and intrinsic motivation for creativity. However, leaders who set minimal goals—emphasizing loss avoidance, security, and duty fulfillment—tend to suppress creativity among their followers due to an increased prevention focus and a propensity to conform to the leader's directives. Our novel concept of leader regulatory goal setting demonstrates incremental predictive validity beyond the effects of conventional transformational and transactional leadership styles. Our findings enrich the comprehension of the motivational interplay in leader-follower exchanges and their creative consequences. Furthermore, this research offers valuable strategies for crafting leadership interventions that effectively stimulate employee creativity.
KW - conformity to leader
KW - employee creativity
KW - employee regulatory focus
KW - intrinsic motivation for creativity
KW - leader regulatory goal setting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85212689067&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/job.2853
DO - 10.1002/job.2853
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85212689067
SN - 0894-3796
JO - Journal of Organizational Behavior
JF - Journal of Organizational Behavior
ER -