Central European Business Review 2013, 2(1):7-14 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.33

Integrating Dependency on the Leader and Empowerment into Transformational Leadership - Creative Performance Relationship

Tobias Kollmann1, Christoph Stöckmann2, Patrick Krell3, Anika Peschl4, Sarah Buchwald5
1 Prof. Dr. Tobias Kollmann, Full Professor, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitaetsstr. 9, 45141 Essen, Germany, Tel.: +49 201 183 2884, Fax: +49 201 183 2862, E-mail: tobias.kollmann@uni-due.de
2 Dr. Christoph Stöckmann, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitaetsstr. 9, 45141 Essen, Germany, Tel.: +49 201 183 2628, E-mail: christoph.stoeckmann@icb.uni-due.de
3 Patrick Krell, Doctoral Researcher, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitaetsstr. 9, 45141 Essen, Germany
4 Anika Peschl, Doctoral Researcher, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitaetsstr. 9, 45141 Essen, Germany, Tel.: +49 201 183 2815, E-mail: anika.peschl@icb.uni-due.de
5 Sarah Buchwald, Graduate, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitaetsstr. 9, 45141 Essen

Previous literature highlights employees' creativity as an important means of fostering innovation and competitive advantage in companies. Transformational leadership is an approach aimed at stimulating and encouraging the creative performance of employees. However, contradictory empirical findings indicate that the relationship between transformational leadership and creativity may be more complex than a simple direct link. Drawing from the existing literature, we propose that dependency on the leader is a partial mediator of this relationship, impeding employees' creativity. Synthesizing theories of leadership and creativity, we propose that empowerment, as a moderator, is able to reduce the dependency on the leader caused by transformational leadership as well as contribute to turning possible negative outcomes of transformational leadership on creative performance into positive outcomes. The findings of a PLS analysis of 271 employees support the predicted mediating and moderating effects. Our results indicate that the transformational leadership style should be combined with empowering behavior to enhance employees' creative performance.

Keywords: transformational leadership; employees' creative performance; dependency on the leader; empowerment
JEL classification: J24

Received: December 2, 2012; Revised: March 15, 2013; Published: March 31, 2013  Show citation

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Kollmann, T., Stöckmann, C., Krell, P., Peschl, A., & Buchwald, S. (2013). Integrating Dependency on the Leader and Empowerment into Transformational Leadership - Creative Performance Relationship. Central European Business Review, 2(1), 7-14. doi: 10.18267/j.cebr.33
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