Status-striving orientation, creative deviance engagement and employee creativity: perspective of structural strain
ISSN: 1750-614X
Article publication date: 8 April 2021
Issue publication date: 16 September 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine why and when employees engage in creative deviance to develop creativity in China. Drawing on strain theory, the authors examined creative deviance engagement as a mediator and transformational leadership as a moderator of the distinct relationships between emotional and rational status-striving orientations and radical and incremental creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
Multisource survey data were collected from 126 team leaders and 446 employees in Chinese firms. Multilevel path analysis was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that emotional status-striving orientation relates to creative deviance engagement, which, in turn, has a stronger relationship with radical creativity than with incremental creativity. Furthermore, creative deviance engagement mediates the indirect relationships between emotional status-striving orientation and radical and incremental creativity. Moreover, transformational leadership moderates the above indirect relationships.
Originality/value
This study is among the first attempts to empirically test the distinct relationships between creative deviance engagement and radical and incremental creativity and further examine how creative deviance engagement mediates the indirect relationships between status-striving orientations and radical and incremental creativity. In addition, the boundary condition of the indirect relationships is investigated. The findings provide valuable insights for the extant literature on status and employee creativity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71832004 and 71672070).
Citation
Liu, Z., Pan, X. and Zhu, T. (2021), "Status-striving orientation, creative deviance engagement and employee creativity: perspective of structural strain", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 821-842. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-09-2020-0413
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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