In line and out of the box: How ethical leaders help offset the negative effect of morality on creativity.

Abstract

Utilizing role theory, we investigate the potential negative relationship between employees’ moral ownership and their creativity, and the mitigating effect of ethical leadership in this relationship. We argue that employees higher on moral ownership are likely to take more moral role responsibility to ensure the ethical nature of their own actions and their environment, inadvertently resulting in them being less able to think outside of the box and to be creative at work. However, we propose that ethical leaders can relieve these employees from such moral agent role, allowing them to be creative while staying moral. We adopt a multimethod approach and test our predictions in 2 field studies (1 dyadic-based from the United States and 1 team-based from China) and 2 experimental studies (1 scenario-based and 1 team-based laboratory study). The results across these studies showed: (a) employee moral ownership is negatively related to employee creativity, and (b) ethical leadership moderates this relationship such that the negative association is mitigated when ethical leadership is high rather than low. Moreover, the team-based laboratory study demonstrated that moral responsibility relief mediated the buffering effect of ethical leadership. We discuss implications for role theory, ethicality, creativity, and leadership at work.

The Emergence of Value-Based Leadership Behavior at the Frontline of Management: A Role Theory Perspective and Future Research Agenda

“…Last but not least, the role expectation of frontline managers can also shift according to the priority and benefits of the organization ( Biddle, 1979 ). For example, the perception of moral ownership has a contagion effect that restrains creativity ( Liu et al, 2020 ). Having such ownership is hence commonly associated with the desire to maintain the role value for the benefit of the organization ( Treviño et al, 2014 ).…”

“…Having such ownership is hence commonly associated with the desire to maintain the role value for the benefit of the organization ( Treviño et al, 2014 ). Although ethical leaders will buffer role responsibility, they also reduce those with an inflated level of ownership from the burden of being monitored ( Liu et al, 2020 ). This finding further highlighted the importance of role choice behaviors when explaining why VBL behaviors will emerge in an organization.…”

“…In synthesizing the review through role theory, we underlined areas that need more attention, in particular, the capacity of the individual to interpret and display VBL behaviors ( Liu et al, 2020 ). Emanating behaviors from the wider social environment require the frontline managers to associate their belief with the role value that is promoted/expected by the organization ( Schepers and Van der Borgh, 2020 ).…”

“…These expectations can also supersede role expectations such as promotion, training, and job security ( Turnley and Feldman, 2000 ). Therefore, this dynamic relationship would govern how frontline managers execute their role and stresses the importance of psychological ownership as a result of their contractual role ( Park et al, 2015 ; Liu et al, 2020 ).…”

The Influence Mechanism of Supervisor Developmental Feedback on the Enactment of Employees’ Creative Ideas: A Moderated Chain Mediation Model Based on Psychological Empowerment

“…Idea enactment refers to the vivid illustration of abstract creative ideas in more tangible forms using PowerPoint presentations, demos, or other physical objects, such as animating boards, mockups, drawings, and experimental simulations ( Lu et al, 2019 ). Different from the connotation of creativity ( Amabile et al, 2005 ; Liu et al, 2020 ), the enactment of creative ideas focuses on the practicality and feasibility of creative ideas ( Harvey, 2014 ; Lee and Farh, 2019 ; Lu et al, 2019 ). Therefore, owing to creative idea enactment closely relates to the supervisor’s assessment of creativity and the core competitiveness of the company, it is imperative to seek remedies to accelerate the enactment of employees’ creative ideas in the context of practitioners lamenting the slow pace of organizational innovation.…”