Impact of differential leadership on innovative behavior of employees: A double-edged sword

Keywords:
differential leadership, work engagement, ego depletion, innovative behavior, employee behavior, leader–follower relationship
Abstract

We investigated if differential leadership predicts the innovative behavior of employees, and examined the mediating roles of work engagement and ego depletion in this relationship. Using a three-wave research design we collected leader–member dyad data from 198 leaders and 485 employees at nine Chinese companies. Results show that differential leadership had opposite effects, that is, it positively predicted the innovative behavior of employees through the mediator of work engagement, and it negatively predicted the innovative behavior of employees through the mediator of ego depletion. These findings contribute to understanding of the relationship between differential leadership and employees’ innovative behavior, and provide a new theoretical perspective on differential leadership.

Author Biographies
  1. Mengyun Wu, Jiangsu University
    School of Finance and Economics
  2. Linrong Zhang, Jiangsu University
    School of Finance and Economics
  3. Muhammad Imran, Jiangsu University
    School of Finance and Economics
  4. Jing Xu, Yangzhou University
    Business School
  5. Ruihui Yu, Chungnam National University
    Department of International Trade
References
Published
2020-10-19
Section
Articles
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