Management Review ›› 2024, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (4): 165-178.

• Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management • Previous Articles    

The Active and Passive Influence of Regulatory Mode Leadership on Team Creativity

Gao Wanying1,2, Gao Suying1, Wang Shilei2, Zhao Shuming3   

  1. 1. School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300131;
    2. School of Management Engineering and Business, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038;
    3. School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093
  • Received:2023-01-04 Published:2024-05-21

Abstract: The mechanism of how regulatory mode leadership, as a universal psychological trait, influences team creativity remains unclear. This study analyzes the active and passive influence of regulatory mode leadership on team creativity based on regulatory mode theory and social information processing theory. The data are collected through the two-stage team leader-member pairing data from a survey of 535 team members in 106 teams of high-teach enterprises in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The regression and bootstrapping result reveals that regulatory mode leadership (leader’s locomotion orientation and leader’s assessment orientation) has a positive impact on team creativity; team job crafting mediates the effect of leader’s locomotion orientation (active leadership behavior) on team creativity; team job involvement mediates the influence of leader’s assessment orientation (passive leadership behavior) on team creativity; as a social circumstance that Chinese enterprises often face, error aversion culture not only negatively moderates the relationship between leader’s locomotion orientation and team job crafting, but also negatively moderates the mediation role of team job crafting; error aversion culture has an insignificant moderating effect both on the relationship between leader’s assessment orientation and team job involvement and on the mediating effect of team job involvement. The research explains the influencing factors of team creativity from the perspective of regulation mode leadership, and bring some enlightenments for leaders to better guide team innovation practice.

Key words: regulatory mode leadership, team creativity, team job involvement, team job crafting, error aversion culture