Author ORCID Identifier

Reiter-Palmon https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8259-4516

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-29-2022

Publication Title

Journal of Creative Behavior

Abstract

Ample correlational research shows that leader support for creativity is related to subordinate creativity, yet research examining the causality of this relationship experimentally is scant. Furthermore, most studies that demonstrate support for this relationship have used relatively subjective creativity measures that do not tap as effectively into the creative problem-solving process. Thus, we experimentally examined whether leader support for creativity affects subordinate creative problem-solving performance. We also examined whether this relationship depends on leader gender. We used experimental vignette methodology and a sample of 247 working adults to test these relationships. We found that high (vs. low) leader support for creativity resulted in a significantly higher number of ideas generated. Additionally, post-hoc analyses showed that high (vs. low) leader support for creativity resulted in a significantly higher number of original ideas and higher number of quality ideas generated. We also found that when the leader was a woman (vs. man), average originality of ideas was significantly higher. We found no significant interactive effects of leader support for creativity and leader gender. We discuss how this study further elucidates our understanding of leader support for creativity, as well as avenues for future creativity research involving leader gender.

Comments

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Maliakkal, N.T. & Reiter-Palmon, R. (2022). The effects of leader support for creativity and leader gender on subordinate creative problem-solving performance. Journal of Creative Behavior, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.566. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

This is an open access article that can also be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.566

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