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Effects of transactional leadership, psychological empowerment and empowerment climate on creative performance of subordinates: A cross-level study

Abstract

This research surveyed 101 teams, involving 497 team members and 101 team leaders, in a large multinational company in China. A hierarchical linear model is used to examine the hypothesized mediated moderation model. It is found that: (1) individual psychological empowerment is positively related to creative performance; (2) the relationship between transactional leadership and subordinates’ creative performance is moderated by team empowerment climate; (3) individual transactional leadership behavior is positively related to subordinates’ creative performance in teams with higher empowerment climate, but negatively related to subordinates’ creative performance in lower empowerment climate; and (4) the relationship between transactional leadership, team empowerment climate and creative performance is partially mediated by subordinates’ psychological empowerment perception. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are also discussed.

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Correspondence to Feng Wei.

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Translated from Guanli Shijie 管理世界 (Management World), 2009, (4): 135–142

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Wei, F., Yuan, X. & Di, Y. Effects of transactional leadership, psychological empowerment and empowerment climate on creative performance of subordinates: A cross-level study. Front. Bus. Res. China 4, 29–46 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11782-010-0002-6

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