1- Introduction

2- Theoretical foundation and hypotheses development

3- Research method

4- Results

5- Discussion

6- Conclusion

References

Abstract

Because no prior studies investigated that green intrinsic and extrinsic motivation influence green creativity, this study aims to bridge this research gap and offers two novel constructs: green intrinsic motivation and green extrinsic motivation. A survey approach is employed to get insights from the information technology (I.T) industry located in Dalian, China. Using structural equation modeling (variance-based), the authors analyzed 298 respondents. The findings revealed that green transformational leadership has a substantial influence on green intrinsic motivation and green creativity, which are needed for employees to produce clean and green products and services. In addition, green intrinsic motivation partially mediates the relationship between green transformational leadership and green creativity. On the contrary, green extrinsic motivation as a moderator slightly undermines the green intrinsic motivation for green creative behavior. Therefore, leadership in organizations should raise the green motivation of employees so that they may innovate environment-friendly and sustainable products and services.

Introduction

Recently, greening the management and organizational philosophy has gained popularity both among the industry and the scholars in order to reduce the impact of industrial waste and hazards produced by organizations and conventional products. Stakeholders and scholars have pressured organizations to strategize policies to attain social, economic, and environmental outcomes. For instance, a few recent studies proposed that greening the information technology and computer practices can help to reduce carbon wastage, disposal activities, and energy consumption in organizations (Bai et al., 2017; Ojo et al., 2019). Thus, in academic areas and industries, focus of research is shifting from a general deliberation on green business into greening the functional areas, such as green innovation (Zailani et al., 2015), green finance (Przychodzen et al., 2018), green human resource management (Yong et al., 2019) and green creativity (Awan et al., 2019).

This research aimed to investigate effect of transformational leadership (TL) in stimulating employee creativity (EC) leading to organizational innovation (OI) and assess the moderating role of Intrinsic Motivation (IM) between TL and EC. The data was collected from 164 supervisor-employee dyads of 31 Pakistani software firms. A three-step approach to SEM was applied to examine mediator and moderator variables. The findings indicate that the Idealized Influence, Intellectual Stimulation, and Inspirational Motivation have a great influence on OI and EC but Individual Consideration was not found to be significantly related to OI and EC. The findings further proved the positive and significant moderating effect of IM for TL and EC. Thus, through TL style, EC can be promoted with the interactive effect of IM by inspiring employees to think out of the box leading to innovation in the organization. This paper attempts to contribute to the current literature by developing moderating role of IM. Furthermore, we have also examined how each dimension of TL is affecting EC, and OI, further some interesting discoveries are also made which other studies have not done before.

Introduction

Today the organizations are functioning in a very vibrant environment with rapid development of technology, requiring organizations to bring creativity and innovation to products & services. A considerable amount of literature has emphasized the significance of employee creativity for innovation (Ouakouak & Ouedraogo, 2017; Liu, Liao, & Loi, 2012; Shalley, Gilson, & Blum, 2009; Yoshida, Sendjaya, Hirst, & Cooper, 2014). Because stimulating individual creativity is a vital element for firms to remain competitive and survive in the market. Various organizations are also constantly looking for different ways to inspire their employees to work creatively and develop innovative ideas (Gu, Tang, & Wan, 2015; Liu et al., 2012; Walton, 2003). Consequently, many researchers are interested to understand the dynamics of employee creativity, especially, to recognize the factors that develop or inhibit creativity within organizations (De Alencar & De Bruno-Faria, 1997; Zhou & Shalley, 2008). The leadership is considered one of the significant factors that affect creative behavior of employees and organizational innovation (Oldham & Cummings, 1996). Moreover, “Leadership has been put forth as a key driver of organizational innovation” (Prasad & Junni, 2016, p. 1542). The transformational leadership style has received extensive popularity as compared with other styles of leadership among leadership researchers (Khalili, 2016; Mittal & Dhar, 2015; Schaubroeck et al., 2012; Shin & Zhou, 2003; Wang & Rode, 2010; Wang, Rode, Shi, Luo, & Chen, 2013), due to its different approaches to motivate creativity of employees as compared with other styles of leadership (Gupta, Singh, Kumar, & Bhattacharya, 2012; ReiterPalmon & Illies, 2004).

1- The critical role of innovation leadership for organizational success

2- The secret sauce for innovation leadership: Creativity, voice, and knowledge sharing

3- What innovation leaders do: Best-practice recommendations

4- Final thoughts

References

Abstract

Innovation-the implementation of creative ideas-is one of the most important factors of competitive advantage in 21st century organizations. Yet, leaders do not always encourage employee behaviors that are critical for innovation. We integrate existing literature on the critical factors that serve as antecedents of innovation, including employee voice and knowledge sharing, which in turn lead to creativity and innovation. Based on existing empirical research, we offer evidence-based recommendations for managers to become innovation leaders by: (1) developing the right group norms, (2) designing teams strategically, (3) managing interactions with those outside the team, (4) showing support as a leader, (5) displaying organizational support, and (6) using performance management effectively.

The critical role of innovation leadership for organizational success

The radical transformation of 21st century organizations is nothing less than a modern-day industrial revolution wherein innovation now plays a critical role in determining organizational success (Cascio & Aguinis, 2008, 2019). Innovations leaders are change agents (Rogers, 1995) who promote the manifestation of new ideas in a work context by creating a supportive climate for creativity and managing the innovation process (Basadur, 2004). In light of this innovation revolution, there is a key question that managers at all hierarchical levels should be asking: What can I do to become an innovation leader in my organization? This is a crucial question because organizations able to implement new ideas successfully pull ahead of the competition (Rogers, 1995). In the entertainment industry, for example, Disney’s animation studio Pixarrelies on cutting-edge technology and creative collaboration to gain a competitive advantage. Pixar films (e.g., Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, Toy Story 3) are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time with Toy Story 3 earning $1.06 billion in 2010 (Mendelson, 2017), making it the third highestgrossing animated film in history. The many accolades Pixar has earned throughout the years include 17 Academy Awards, 8 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards.

Introduction

Managers’ leadership has been widely considered as the key factor affecting employee creativity (Herrmann and Felfe, 2013; Le et al., 2017; Shalley and Gilson, 2004; Shalley et al., 2004; Qu et al., 2015). The various leadership styles, such as empowering leadership and transformational leadership, have been applied to exercise managers’ formal authority and position power, which have largely played the positive role in affecting employee creativity (Gong et al., 2009; Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Recently, however, much attention has focused on “the dark, or destructive, side of leadership” (Lee et al., 2013). The increase in frequency of such destructive leader behaviors and their significant impact on organizational and individual outcomes in the workplace are important reasons for this research interest. One such a construct that embodies leaders’ ineffective behavior is that of authoritarian leadership, which refers to a leadership approach that emphasizes leaders’ absolute authority and requires subordinates to be absolutely obedient (Cheng et al., 2000). Particularly in the Chinese culture, authoritarian leadership has been viewed as an important contextual factor that affect employees’ willingness and motivation to engage in creative activities because authoritarian leadership emphasize on obedience to authority and discourage the creative thinking of employee (Zhang et al., 2011). Given its dominance role in Chinese modern organizations (Zhang et al., 2015) and its significant role in influencing employee behaviors, few studies have begun to examine the effects of authoritarian leadership on creativity. For example, Zhang et al. (2011) reported a negative relationship between authoritarian leadership and group creativity at the group level. However, the extant literature is marked by some concerning limitations. First, although some scholars have started to explore the mediators between authoritarian leadership and employee outcomes (Chen et al., 2014), the underlying psychological mechanisms linking authoritarian leadership and employee creativity still are not fully understood. Given the fact that authoritarian leadership can influence employees’ psychological connections to their leaders and teams (Chan et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2014; Schaubroeck et al., 2017), and such psychological connections will ultimately contribute to employee creativity (Shalley and Perry-Smith, 2001), the potential psychological mediators linking authoritarian leadership and employee creativity should be clarified. One goal of this study is to address this limitation by identifying the psychological processes underlying the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee creativity. Second, the effect of authoritarian leadership is contingent on individual differences, such as cultural values, but limited relevant research work has been done. Previous studies have argued that the cultural values employees hold play an important role in how employees react to authoritarian leadership (Pellegrini and Scandura, 2008; Schaubroeck et al., 2017). Therefore, another goal of this study is to empirically investigate the potential moderating role of cultural values to provide a better understanding of the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee creativity. In this article, we draw from social exchange perspective that highlight the role of employees’ perceptions of their social exchange relationships with their leaders to argue that LMX mediates the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee creativity.

Introduction

Over the past decades, the far-reaching effects of an increasing number of business scandals (e.g., Enron, WorldCom) and the more recent global financial crisis of 2006–2009 have repeatedly highlighted the importance of ethical practices in corporations (Brenker 2010). During the recent financial crisis, nearly 26 million people in the US were out of work and US$11 trillion of wealth disappeared (Dallas 2012). As leaders typically set the standards for behavior in the workplace and then create situations and cultures that influence employee and organizational outcomes, people usually attribute scandals and unethical behavior in corporations to the lack of leader integrity, both at the upper management level and at the lower work team level (Sims and Brinkmann 2002). Scholars have demonstrated that leader integrity is not only effective in preventing ethical meltdowns in organizations (Sims and Brinkmann 2003), but is also the key to leadership and organizational effectiveness and growth (Kannan-Narasimhan and Lawrence 2012). Studies have shown that leader integrity is positively related to subordinates’ positive attitudes (e.g. organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and well-being. See Simons et al. 2015; Davis and Rothstein 2006; Prottas 2008, 2013), organizational citizenship behavior (e.g. Dineen et al. 2006), and performance (e.g. Simons et al. 2015; Palanski and Yammarino 2011; Leroy et al. 2012b), and negatively related to subordinates’ tendencies toward deviant behavior (e.g. Dineen et al. 2006) and absenteeism (Prottas 2008). One study even found that integrity is the single best predictor of ratings of trust in leaders (Morgan 1989). However, empirical research on leader integrity is in its infancy. Integrity is a new and promising area for research (Simons et al. 2011). The relationship between leader integrity and employee creativity has rarely been discussed. Today’s organizations heavily depend on creative ideas from employees to build a competitive edge as work becomes increasingly knowledge-based and dynamic (George 2007). Scholars and practitioners share a strong interest in understanding how leadership fosters or prohibits employee creativity (Hennessey and Amabile 2010). Therefore, it is of both theoretical and empirical importance to illuminate the influence of leader integrity—an axiomatic characteristic of effective leadership (Simons 2002; Palanski and Yammarino 2009)—on employee creativity as well as the buffering factors for this influence. Thus, the first purpose of this study is to integrate and extend research on leadership and creativity to investigate whether leader integrity fosters employee creativity in teams. In addition, regardless of the management level, the atmosphere or culture that a leader sets has an effect on the behavior of his/her followers (White and Lean 2008). The integrity of leaders at all levels of a hierarchy is critical for overall organizational health and reputation (Kannan-Narasimhan and Lawrence 2012; Simons et al. 2007). As an emerging perspective, the cascading effect of role modeling from higher-level leaders to lower-level leaders has received considerable empirical support in the leadership literature (e.g. Mayer et al. 2009). For example, Liu et al. (2012) demonstrated that department leader abusive supervision triggers team leader abusive supervision and subsequently influences employee creativity. Social learning theory (SLT) provides a solid rationale for this trickledown effect, whereby leaders at a lower level of a hierarchy may mimic and display the behavior of leaders at a higher hierarchical level.

Introduction

This paper reports on how positive emotions and feelings generated by an organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions can lead to positive influence on employee attitude (creative process engagement (CPE)) and employee behavior (creativity). Drawing on the affective events theory (AET), this study investigates and explains how antecedents and consequences of affective experiences at work will have explanatory role to the relationship between internal CSR (i.e. CSR activities directed toward internal stakeholder such as employee groups) and employee creativity. AET proposes that work environment characteristics influence the occurrence of certain events. These events, in turn, stimulate different affective reactions and thus influence employee work behaviors (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996). Over the past decade, many studies have been conducted to discern the relationship between an organization’s CSR perceptions and employee outcomes such as job satisfaction (e.g. Barakat et al., 2016; Glavas and Kelley, 2014), organizational commitment (Kim et al., 2010), and citizenship behaviors (e.g. Gao and He, 2017). Most of these investigations found that CSR perceptions were positively associated with employee outcomes. Furthermore, some studies analyzed the process through which an organization’s CSR perceptions evoke positive employee outcomes. These studies had exclusively relied on mechanisms such as employees’ perceptions of their organizations’ justice and employee identification (e.g. De Roeck et al., 2014) and their attitudes toward them (e.g. organizational trust; Wang et al., 2013). Most recently, De Roeck et al. (2016) found that CSR perceptions interact with overall justice to predict organizational identification through the mediation of perceived external prestige and organizational pride. Based on the literature review conducted for the current study, there are only a few conceptual frameworks had been used by researchers to explain the relationship between organization’s CSR perceptions and employee attitudes and behaviors. Glavas and Kelley (2014) highlighted that the gab exists in the literature in regards to the association between CSR and employee work outcomes, and encouraged researchers to clarify some of the mechanisms that make this association possible. However, even though CSR is believed to lead to positive affective experiences (Moon et al., 2014), very little attention has been given to affect-based theories as a theoretical mechanism to understand the positive association between CSR perceptions and employee outcomes. Consequently, the current study aims to fill this gap by adopting AET as a theoretical framework that could explain the relationship between CSR perceptions and employee creative behaviors. Moreover, most of CSR studies were western centered. Having said this, little is known about how CSR is implicated and instantiated in less developed countries (LDCs) like Egypt. Hence, CSR literature in western context offers rich insights into how CSR evokes positive employee outcomes (e.g. Ditlev-Simonsen, 2015; Hofman and Newman, 2014; De Roeck and Delobbe, 2012; De Roeck et al., 2014; Stites and Michael, 2011), it is somewhat surprising to see that little attention has been paid to studying CSR in LDCs.

Introduction

Previous researchers paid more attention to discuss visitors’ behavior in theme park industry (e.g. Cheng et al., 2014). For example, Cheng et al. (2014) indicated that there are seven factors influencing visitor brand-switching behavior. In fact, how to satisfy customers needs employees to contribute their creative performance. Frontline employees are important to ensure customer satisfaction (Bitner et al., 1990). Frontline employees’ creativity can be of great value for service organizations (Coelho et al., 2011). However, there are fewer articles to explore how to increase employees’ creativity capability in theme park industry. Some previous studies have been conducted on the impact of employee creativity and innovation in the field of general management and hospitality, hence the call of some researchers and practitioners for the need to analyze the influence of creativity and innovation on service organizations (Hon and Lui, 2016). Empirical evidence has revealed that an organization wants to support innovation to encourage employee creativity (Černe et al., 2013). Some studies on knowledge sharing among employees have indicated that knowledge is a key advantage that employees possess for influencing their organization to implement changes (Wynder, 2007; Kessel et al., 2012). Because diverse knowledge serves as the foundation for creativity in an organization, it is necessary for employees to take the initiative on sharing this knowledge (Perry-Smith, 2006). In addition, compared with hard characteristics, leadership is a personal behavior that is likely to be affected by interpersonal interactions (Cheung and Wong, 2011; Edú-Valsania et al., 2016). In various leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX) stresses the importance of building relationships between mutual respect and trust on both supervisors and their subordinates (Gerstner and Day, 1997), whereas other leadership focuses more on a top-down, one-way relationship between these two parties (Zhao, 2015). Therefore, this study determines whether the use of LMX in employee knowledge sharing could affect the relationship between supervisors and their subordinates. A psychological contract is a critical factor to determine the effort that employees exert in their work (Landry et al., 2014). Studies also have shown that both full-time and part-time employees are deeply concerned about a transactional psychological contract from their supervisors (Erkutlu and Chafra, 2016). Therefore, this study investigates the role of a transactional psychological contract if it can enhance creativity in employees. The research scope aims to discuss the relations among knowledge sharing, LMX, transactional psychological contract, and employee creativity in theme park employees in Taiwan. This study proposes that employee knowledge-sharing behavior may increase LMX quality, which, in turn, enhances employee creativity. We constructed a research model on the basis of the proposed research hypotheses (Figure 1) and addressed three research questions: RQ1. Does knowledge sharing relate to employee creativity through the mediating effects of LMX? RQ2. Does the transactional psychological contract moderate the relationship between LMX and employee creativity? RQ3. Does the transactional psychological contract moderate the mediating pathway? This study investigates two research issues as the followings: first, this study examines the relationships between transactional psychological contract and LMX. In addition, this study considers that the relationship between LMX and creativity might be weakened by employee’s psychological contract. Second, this study explores a moderated mediation model that transactional psychological contract plays a moderated mediating role among intent to share knowledge, LMX and employee creativity.

Introduction

China has tremendously developed economically in nearly four decades, since the transition from a planned to market economy. Since the early 1990s, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) has grown enormously that it exceeded Germany in 2007 and Japan in 2010, thereby becoming one of the largest economies in the world second only to the USA[1]. There is no doubt that innovation has played a vital role in China’s economic growth, which has shifted the country from a world factory that produced low-value added products to the most innovative economy significantly producing high value-added products (Zhang et al., 2012). China’s ranking of the Global Innovation Index[2] has steadily risen from 35 in 2013 to 22 in 2017[3]. It is currently the only middle-income country that is ranked among the top 25 innovative industrialized and developed countries. The surge in China’s economy has been explained in different ways. While environmental factors such as the growth of foreign direct investment (Hu and Jefferson, 2009) and government subsidies (Li, 2012) are the major reasons, creative talent of individuals has not only contributed to China’s rapid development to date, but will also further innovation in China. Hence, our main research question is: RQ1. What can help develop creative talents in China? Individual creativity can be perceived as a function of individual traits, such as cognitive capabilities, personality and upbringing, and contextual factors, such as their cultural and organizational backgrounds (Hahn et al., 2015; Oldham and Cummings, 1996). In this study, we mainly focus on contextual factors that can affect individual creativity, which has recently gained attention. The effects of organizational and cultural factors on individual creativity are examined, provided the facts that individuals spend most of their lifetime in various working organizations and that they are embedded in and profoundly influenced by their national cultural background. Specifically, we explore the relationship between organizational innovation activities and employee creativity, and the moderating effect of collectivism – a prominent dimension of the Chinese culture. We are interested in the effects of organizational innovation on employee creativity for three reasons. First, even though it has been well established that employee creativity can be shaped by organizational context (Oldham and Cummings, 1996), less is known about whether and how it can be fostered and nurtured in organizations that are engaged in various innovation activities. Second, most of the previous studies that examined the relationship between creativity and innovation often at one specific level of analysis and rarely has there been cross-level research on this relationship (Anderson et al., 2014; Sarooghi et al., 2015). Third, it is intuitive and often assumed that the creativity–innovation relationship is unidirectional that creative employees precede organizational innovation (Anderson et al., 2014; Valaei et al., 2017); recently, some have researchers proposed a theoretical model of creativity–innovation cycle (Paulus, 2002; Lee et al., 2007). While there has been some preliminary evidence from case studies that organizational innovation does contribute to the development of employee creativity (Lee et al., 2007), systematic examination using quantitative methods is still lacking.

Introduction

Research has demonstrated that employee creativity – the generation of novel and useful ideas (Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996) – is a key determinant of organizational innovation and success (Zhou & Hoever, 2014). Given the importance of employee creativity in predicting positive work outcomes, numerous researchers have examined its antecedents, such as empowering leadership (Zhang & Zhou, 2014), employee learning orientation (Gong, Huang, & Farh, 2009), transformational leadership (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009), highperformance work system (Tang, Yu, Cooke, & Chen, 2017), intrinsic motivation (Dewett, 2007), and job dissatisfaction (Zhou & George, 2001). However, limited studies have examined the influence of work environment impediments such as organizational politics on employee creativity (e.g., Aryee, Zhou, Sun, & Lo, 2009), particularly the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship. Consistent with assertions by early theorists (e.g., Gandz & Murray, 1980), Ferris and Kacmar (1992) argue that it is not actual politics that matters most to organizational outcomes rather, it is the subjective perception of organizational politics, whether actual or not, that influences an individuals’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions. This is in line with Lewin’s (1936) view that people respond on the basis of their perceptions of reality, not reality per se. Hence, we follow a definition by Ferris, Harrell-Cook, and Dulebohn (2000, p. 90) to be more appropriate to the current study: the perception of organizational politics (POP) “involves an individual’s attribution to behaviors of selfserving intent, and is defined as an individual’s subjective evaluation about the extent to which the work environment is characterized by coworkers and supervisors who demonstrate such self-serving behavior.” In the present study, we aim to investigate the relationship between POP and employee creativity through knowledge hiding and the moderating role of professional commitment in the association between POP and knowledge hiding.

1.1. POP and knowledge hiding

Research has demonstrated that people who perceive politics at work experience negative outcomes; for instance, lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Vigoda, 2000), decreased job performance (Chang, Rosen, & Levy, 2009), and turnover intentions (Miller, Rutherford, & Kolodinsky, 2008). The link between perceived organizational politics and its outcomes can be explained by utilizing the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). The JD-R model proposes that employee well-being is influenced by two specific characteristics of the work environment i.e., job demands and job resources (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001). In this study, we focus on the former, as we are positioning perceived organizational politics as a job demand. Job demands “refer to those physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical and/or psychological (cognitive and emotional) effort or skills and are therefore associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs” (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007, p. 312). Examples include high work pressure, poor physical environment, and perceptions of politics in one’s workplace (Bedi & Schat, 2013). In their meta-analysis, Bedi and Schat (2013) found a positive relationship between POP and counterproductive work behaviors (e.g., arriving late, taking extended brakes, etc.) suggesting that those who experience politics may respond by engaging in such types of withdrawal. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between POP and what has been termed as “counterproductive knowledge behavior” by Serenko and Bontis (2016). Particularly, knowledge hiding, defined as an “intentional attempt by an individual to withhold or conceal knowledge that has been requested by another person” (Connelly, Zweig, Webster, & Trougakos, 2012, p. 65). We propose that in a highly political organization, employees are likely to engage in knowledge hiding behaviors for three reasons. First, employees may hide knowledge in order to protect their self-interest in a politicized environment (Cui, Park, & Paik, 2016).

Introduction

Martha, Carolina, Joseph, Niels, and Pei-Chuan (2002) advocated that organisational culture (OC) is “the pattern of variations within a society, or, more specifically, as the pattern of deep-level values and assumptions associated with societal effectiveness, shared by an interacting group of people” (p. 276). Organisations across several countries have experienced diverse challenges as a result of applying an OC that is not supportive of the kind of values they require to engender employee creativity (Dong, 2002; Huston & Sakkab, 2006; Peterson, 2005). Several Nigerian manufacturing organisations are known to employ a predominant hierarchical OC (Gabriel & Kpakol, 2014), and studies (Gupta, 2011; Naranjo-Valencia, Jiménez-Jiménez, & SanzValle, 2016) lament that this has a negative impact on employee creativity. The Nigerian manufacturing industry is an integral part of the country’s economic development – a catalyst for modernisation with propensities of creating multiplier effects (Akume & Abdullahi, 2013). However, some studies (Dimnwobi, Ekesiobi, & Mgbemena, 2016; Emeka, Ifeoma, & Emmanuel, 2015) have identified a growing deterioration in its innovation capabilities. This reflects a lack of an engendered employee creativity workforce, and the application of an unsupportive OC. Employee creativity in general feeds off of creative ideas (Bai, Lin, & Li, 2016; Gilson & Litchfield, 2017). Nevertheless, creative ideas repeatedly get lost or repressed in Nigerian manufacturing organisations, as they sometimes appear to be unwelcomed by managers (Akume & Abdullahi, 2013). A parallel case is when top management leaders exhibit unreceptive attitudes to creative ideas employees share by exhibiting questionable, unkind or malevolent behaviours within Nigerian manufacturing organisations (Gabriel & Kpakol, 2014; John, 2011). Hence, there is need for top management leaders to consider becoming more benevolent, since it could have a rather positive effect on employee creativity (Zhou & George, 2003). Employee creativity is an individual level phenomenon that mirrors the production of creative ideas, builds uniquely upon existing ideologies, and suggests novel approaches to create new solutions (Amabile & Pillemer, 2012; Ogbeibu, Senadjki, & Luen Peng, 2017). In order to engender employee creativity, top management leaders ought to recognise the role of organisational benevolence. The extent to which an individual is perceived to possess and display good intentions towards another is denoted as benevolence (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). By becoming more benevolent, organisations may be able to build strong resilience against a future of constant change (Castro, Gomes, & de Sousa, 2012). The need to have a benevolent top management leader who strongly expresses emotions that reflect goodwill, compassion, care, altruism and kindness towards employees in order to engender employee creativity; is becoming a necessity for achieving successful innovative outcomes at the organisational level (Wang & Jap, 2017). Through the demonstration of benevolence by top management leaders, a work environment characterised as humane, supportive, comfortable, trusting, and respectful could be created, and this likewise incites observable benefits for the common good of organisational members (Karakas & Sarigollu, 2012).