Enabling creativity: the interplay of participative leadership, coworkers' knowledge sharing behavior and employee's creative idea validation

PurposeBased on theory Z of leadership, this research aims to investigate the direct relationship between participative leadership (PL) and creative idea validation (CIV) fostering both radical (RC) and incremental creativity (IC). Additionally, by utilizing attribution theory, it explores the moderating effect of coworkers' knowledge-sharing behavior (KSB) on both the direct and indirect relationships.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a descriptive approach and convenient sampling from three sources - leaders, subordinates and coworkers - in R&D departments at multi-levels within 97 high-tech firms in China. Data comprised 446 employees (subordinates and coworkers) and 94 leaders, and multilevel path analysis was conducted using Mplus software.FindingsThe results indicate that PL exhibits both a direct and indirect positive association with RC and IC through the CIV. Moreover, the relationship is enhanced by coworkers' high-KSB.Practical implicationsOur study offers implications that managers can leverage to foster employee creativity. Leaders are encouraged to embrace a PL style for collective idea validation. However, to overcome coworkers' reciprocal behavior, they may facilitate trust and team-building exercises, enabling employees to strengthen relationships and share critical information and knowledge resources for the development and validation.Originality/valueThis study is the first to empirically extend the relationship between PL and CIV, utilizing a multilevel approach to assess its impact on distinctive types of creativity - namely, radical and incremental. Further, it testifies the significance of coworkers' knowledge as an attribution effect influencing the relationships.