Team Management and Behaviour

EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP AND TEAM CREATIVITY: THE ROLES OF TEAM LEARNING BEHAVIOR, TEAM CREATIVE EFFICACY, AND TEAM TASK COMPLEXITY XIAOMENG ZHANG Kogod School of Business American University 4400 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C.20016 YUAN YI CHEN Hong Kong Baptist University HO KWONG KWAN Drexel University ABSTRACT Integrating leadership and creativity theories, we tested a model that links empowering leadership with team creativity. Using longitudinal data from 102 R&D teams across three IT companies, we found empowering leadership positively influenced team creativity via team learning behavior and team creative efficacy. And team task complexity strengthened these relationships. INTRODUCTION As one way of coping with rapid technological change and fierce global competition, many organizations are increasingly relying on teams to ignite the creative spark of their employees (Paulus, 2008; Shin & Zhou, 2007). Although the creativity literature has made considerable progress in understanding individual creativity, the research on team creativity for ordinary teams in the workplace has far lagged behind (Shalley, Zhou, & Oldham, 2004). Team creativity refers to the production of novel and potentially useful ideas about products, services, process, and procedures by a group of employees (Shin & Zhou, 2007). More and more theoretical arguments suggest that team leaders’ empowering behaviors play a key role in enabling team members’ latitude and promoting their motivation, thus eliciting creative actions of the team (Amabile, Schatzel, Moneta, & Kramer, 2004; Kirkman & Rosen, 1997, 1999; Mumford, Scott, Gaddis, & Strange, 2002; Shalley & Gilson, 2004). Despite the theoretical relevance of empowering leadership with team creativity, there is no empirical evidence that empowering leadership serves as an antecedent of team creativity. Therefore, a major purpose of this study is to build and empirically test a conceptual model that links empowering leadership with

References: AVAILABLE FROM THE AUTHORS Copyright of Academy of Management Proceedings is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder 's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. Copyright of Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder 's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.