与领导关系好如何激发下属创造力?——一项跨层次研究

How Leader-Member Exchange Inspires Employee Creativity: A Cross-level Study

基于角色认同理论,本文对团队情境中领导—成员交换对员工创造力的作用机制及领导—成员交换差异和团队领导—成员交换的调节作用进行了研究。通过对来自139个团队595名员工的样本,运用多层线性分析技术进行数据分析,得到以下研究结果:创新角色认同在领导—成员交换与员工创造力的关系中起部分中介作用;领导—成员交换差异和团队领导—成员交换对领导—成员交换与创新角色认同的关系起调节作用。具体地,当团队中领导—成员交换差异程度大时,会减弱领导—成员交换与创新角色认同的积极关系;而当团队领导—成员交换水平高时,会增强领导—成员交换与创新角色认同的积极关系。

Employees＇ creativity becomes the key to the survival and development in today＇s organizations. So we need to know more about factors impacting creativity on the workplace. As one of the most important situational variables, Leader can influence the creativity greatly. Leader-member exchange （LMX） is one of the most influen- tial leadership models. The basic principle of LMX theory is that leaders develop different types of exchange rela- tionships with their followers and that the quality of these relationships affects important leader and member attitudes and behaviors. Meantime, in group the dyadic relationship can form a group-level LMX relationship, such as Group LMX and LMX differentiation. Group LMX serves as a group level indicator of LMX. LMX differentiation is defined as the extent to which the leader forms different quality exchange relationships with group members. Some of the em- pirical studies supported that individual LMX quality is positively related to employee creativity. However, the re- search on explaining how the quality of LMX affects individual creativity is not enough. In addition, Farmer found creative role identity （CRI） is a powerful influence factor of the employees＇ creativity, but the research on the rela- tionship between LMX and CRI is deficiency. Based on role identity theory, we propose a cross-level model to explain how and when the quality of LMX af- fects creativity in work teams. Specifically, we examine the role and mechanism of LMX on creativity through CRI. Furthermore, examine the moderating effect of Group LMX and LMX differentiation on the relationship be- tween LMX and CRI. Data were collected from 595 employees in 139 groups. Results indicated ： （ 1 ） LMX had posi- tive effects on employee creativity through the partial mediating role of CRI. （2） The moderating effect of two varia- bles of LMX in group level has also been approved. Specifically, LMX differentiation attenuated LMX quality＇s di- rect effect on CRI, whereas Group LMX augmented LMX quality＇s direct effect on CRI. The theoretical implications of the study ： First, this study first proposes and empirically examine the LMX has a positive effects on CRI, and furthermore, the mediating role of CRI between LMX and creativity is verified. Second, this study approved the moderating effect of two variables of LMX in group level. The practical im- plication is as following： First, in order to improve creativity, leadership should make great efforts to cultivate employees＇ CRI. Second, the study shows that LMX has significant effects on employees＇ creativity. Therefore, lead- ers can take corresponding measures to stimulate creativity. Third, according to the conclusion, the leader should also understand that high overall relationship quality of leader with all the group members will be beneficial to employees＇ CRI, and group leader＇s different treatments to different members will weaken the positive role of LMX on CRI. Therefore, leader should try to establish good relationship with all members as far as possible, and to keep fair in work decision to reduce negative emotions.