When is the leader's creativity related to the followers' creativity? A cross-level examination in China

Drawing on social cognitive theory, the study focused on the influence of the leader's creativity on the employees' creativity in organizational settings, and further incorporated Leader Member Exchange Relationship (LMX) and authoritarian leadership as situational factors to track their interaction effect on employees' creativity. We conducted two studies using two different samples of leader-subordinate dyads in China to test our assumptions. The findings showed: (1) the presence of the leader's creativity had a positive association with the employees' creativity; (2) authoritarian leadership can positively moderate this relationship; (3) LMX interacted with the joint condition to affect employees' creativity - more specifically, the effect of the leader's creativity on the employees is stronger when LMX is high and authoritarian leadership is high than when LMX is high and authoritarian leadership is low; the effect of the leader's creativity on the employees is stronger when LMX is low and authoritarian leadership is low than when LMX is low and authoritarian leadership is high. In the end, the limitation and implication are discussed.