How Do Leaders Influence Innovation and Creativity in Employees? The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation

• Author: Seerat Fatima,Debajyoti Pal,Chunlin Xin,Saeed Siyal,Waheed Ali Umrani
• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Date: 01 October 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095399721997427
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399721997427

Administration & Society

2021, Vol. 53(9) 1337 –1361

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399721997427

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Article

How Do Leaders

Influence Innovation and

Creativity in Employees?

The Mediating Role of

Intrinsic Motivation

Saeed Siyal1, Chunlin Xin1,

Waheed Ali Umrani2, Seerat Fatima3,

and Debajyoti Pal4

Abstract

Drawing on social exchange theory, this research examines how inclusive

leaders foster innovative work behavior and creativity in employees. Data

were collected in two steps from the 320 employees working in Chinese

R&D organizations to draw the result for this research. The findings indicate

a positive impact of inclusive leadership on innovative work behavior and

creativity. In addition, intrinsic motivation mediates this relationship. The

implications and future research are also discussed.

Keywords

China, inclusive leadership, innovative work behavior, creativity, intrinsic

motivation

1School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China

2Karachi School of Business and Leadership, Pakistan

3Bahauddin Zakaria University, Pakistan

4King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand

Corresponding Authors:

Saeed Siyal, School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical

Technology, Beijing 100029, China.

Email: saeed@mail.ustc.edu.cn

Chunlin Xin, School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical

Technology, Beijing 100029, China.

Email: xinchl@mail.buct.edu.cn

997427AASXXX10.1177/0095399721997427Administration & SocietySiyal et al.

research-article2021

1338 Administration & Society 53(9)

Introduction

In this modern era of globalization, organizations need to be innovative to

survive in the market and stay competitive. To do so, organizations tend to

human resources and strive toward innovating their working styles, methods,

and operations which lead to productive outcomes (Jung et al., 2003; Khan

et al., 2012; Ramoorthy et al., 2005). According to Janssen (2000), employ-

ees must be skilled and trained to have an uninterrupted flow o f innovation

and accomplish the aims and goals of their organizations. The occurrence of

innovative work behavior (IWB) within organizations is found attributing

effective leadership, and thus, inclusive leaders stimulate intellectually and

cherish the innovative thinking which in turn brings the IWB among subordi-

nates and followers to procure recent knowledge and new technologies. The

IWB is not a routine behavior that usually evades traditional or customary

means to approach work. Instead, it discovers and then implements the mod-

ern means of working and accomplishing the day-to-day tasks as well as

other assigned tasks. For this, the employees need intrinsic motivation which

will help them advance and boost up the process of innovation (Edmondson

& Lei, 2014). Intrinsic motivation is developed due to the personal interests

of the individuals which let them tend toward the accomplishment of assigned

tasks on their own, without any external influence. This may be increased by

the leaders and their relationships with followers and subordinates.

We choose to study these outcome variables due to these considerations.

First, the prior studies have discussed little about the relationship of inclusive

leadership (IL) with IWB and creativity, and no study has been conducted in

the context of R&D employees. Most of the studies have been conducted in

the private firms, and some are limited to a single organization or industries.

Second, from this literature, it is quite clear that IL encourages IWB and cre-

ativity; this makes a contribution to say that better leaders will boost the IWB

of their subordinates and followers which in turn will lead to creative ideas.

The three qualities of the inclusive leaders (openness, accessibility, and avail-

ability) jointly bring the IWB within the employees. These qualities of the

leaders are useful in building the good relations among the leaders and fol-

lowers. In turn, employees are encouraged to share their ideas and implement

them with the support of their leaders. Third, these constructs are key ele-

ments of any organization and have major implications to improve the perfor-

mance of employees and the organizations as a whole. Finally, studying the

impact of IL on IWB and creativity directly and indirectly via intrinsic moti-

vation will be effectual for the R&D departments as well as organizations to

evaluate whether inclusive leaders are meant to bring IWB and creativity in