Impact of authentic leadership on employee creativity through empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour

Abstract

This research examines the mechanism to construe employee creativity from authentic leadership via empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour. Based on Social Exchange Theory (SET), a research framework investigating the above-mentioned mechanism was developed and tested. The research also assesses the elevating effect of knowledge sharing on the link between authentic leadership and employee creativity. A survey was conducted with salespeople in the banking and insurance industries. After data quality screening, the data, including 448 responses, were usable for analysis using two software SPSS 25.0 and SmartPLS 3.2. Results revealed that authentic leadership affects employee creativity, both directly and indirectly. The indirect effects through the two mediators were much greater. Besides, knowledge sharing elevates the impact of authentic leadership on employee creativity.