Servant leadership and followers' creativity: does climate for creativity matter?

Purpose This research proposes, building on social exchange theory and the componential theory of creativity, a model of servant leadership to investigate its effect on followers' creativity through the intervening mechanism of climate for creativity in the hospitality industry, operating in a non-Western context. Design/methodology/approach The study predicted that climate for creativity will play a significant intervening role in the servant leadership-creativity relationship. The study's data were collected from 232 employees working in 70 Palestinian hotels. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses along with techniques used to reduce common method bias. Findings The results revealed the significance of climate for creativity as a partial mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and followers' creativity. Practical implications The results might be useful for hotel managers in the context of utilizing servant leadership roles for fostering a creative climate. They might, therefore, consider placing servant leaders as a recruitment agenda priority. Originality/value This research is novel in three ways. First, its aim is to enrich the empirical literature on servant leadership, which is still in a maturity stage. Second, even with the research studies that are available, limited analysis is found on how servant leadership can stimulate employees' behaviors in the hospitality industry. Third, the study has been conducted in a non-Western context, in contrast to most servant leadership research studies being carried out in Western countries.