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.