Leader humility, team job crafting and team creativity: The moderating role of leader–leader exchange

• Date: 01 January 2021
• Author: Chao Chen,Jin Yao,Xinmei Liu,Jie Feng
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12306
• Published date: 01 January 2021

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Leader humility, team job crafting and team

creativity: The moderating role of leader–leader

exchange

Chao Chen

1

| Jie Feng

2

| Xinmei Liu

1

| Jin Yao

1

1

School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong

University, Xi'an, China

2

School of Management and Labor Relations,

Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey

Correspondence

Jie Feng, Rutgers University, 94 Rockafeller

Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.

Email: jie.feng@rutgers.edu

Funding information

National Natural Science Foundation Project

of China, Grant/Award Number: 71572140

Abstract

Despite an increasing number of studies on leader humility,

the relationship between leader humility and team creativity

needs further exploration. Using the connectionist network

model, we propose that leader–leader exchange (LLX), the

upward exchange relationship of a team's direct supervisor,

moderates the effect of leader humility on team job crafting,

and this in turn affects team creativity.We test our hypothe-

ses using a sampleof 286 employees in 59 teams with a mul-

tiple-source, time-lagged research design. Our conclusions

are as follows: (a) for team leaders with high LLX, leader

humility is positivelyrelated to team job crafting, whereas for

team leaders with low LLX, the relationship between leader

humility and team job crafting is negative; (b) team job

crafting is positively related to team creativity and (c) team

job crafting mediates the effect of the interaction between

leader humility andLLX on team creativity.

KEYWORDS

leader humility, leader–leader exchange (LLX), team creativity,

team job crafting

What is currently known about the subject matter?

•The effect of leader humility on team creativity may depend on certain boundary conditions.

•The role of team job crafting, as a unique bottom-up process, is an important and emerging topic in the

research on team creativity.

Received: 23 July 2018 Revised: 5 April 2020 Accepted: 26 May 2020

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12306

326 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Hum Resour Manag J. 2021;31:326–340.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj