An Investigation of Inclusive Leadership’s Impact on Employee Creativity in Textile Firms in Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17775093Keywords:
Inclusive Leadership, Employee Creativity, Leader-member Exchange, Personality, Textile SectorAbstract
Purpose: Research on inclusive leadership (IL) is flourishing but there is less research concerning how IL affects employee creativity (EC) through mediating and moderating mechanisms. Specifically, limited research is available about inclusive leadership’s impact on creativity with leader member exchange (LMX) as a mediator and personality traits as moderators. Such studies are extremely rare in Pakistan’s context. Thus, learning how IL, employee-leader interactions, and personality attributes influence workplace creativity has been the major goal of this research.
Methodology: This study used quantitative approach and cross-sectional design; gathered 300 valid responses from employees working in Pakistan’s textile firms and used PLS-SEM for data analyses.
Findings: Results reveal that LMX mediates IL's indirect effect on EC. Quality leader-employee interactions foster trust, communication, and support, boosting creativity. Leaders’ extraversion and high conscientiousness affected their followers’ creativity. The moderation analysis showed that IL works across personality profiles since personality characteristics do not significantly impact the link between IL and EC. These results suggest that IL indirectly boosts creativity through social dynamics, not personality.
Implications/Originality/Value: Novelty of the study is evident through its mediated moderation model involving test of IL on EC. This research provides its findings for a non-Western, industry-specific environment adding to inclusive leadership theory. The findings imply that executives who practice IL, focus high-quality employee interactions and actively leverage their personality factors, increase EC. The findings hold significance for managers and HR professionals to design effective leadership development programs to boost creativity & innovation in textile sector of Pakistan.
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