IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/busper/v9y2021i2p235-251.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Authentic Leadership Fostering Creativity in Start-ups: Mediating Role of Work Engagement and Employee Task Proactivity

Author

Listed:
  • Santoshi Sengupta
  • Swati Sharma
  • Aishwarya Singh

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of authentic leadership (AL) on employee creativity and the mediating role of work engagement (WE) and employee task proactivity (ETP) in the context of start-ups. Data collected from 300 leaders and 300 employees of Indian start-ups were analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that AL has direct and significant effects on creativity and the same is mediated by WE and ETP. For a start-up, it is essential that employees perceive their founders or leaders to have high moral perspective, clear sense of self-awareness and exhibit transparency in their behaviours with their followers. Such behaviours motivate the followers to invest soulfully in their work and do things in a proactive manner, which then leads to creativity. For any start-up to succeed, both a strong form of positive leadership and high levels of creativity from employees are required.

Suggested Citation

  • Santoshi Sengupta & Swati Sharma & Aishwarya Singh, 2021. "Authentic Leadership Fostering Creativity in Start-ups: Mediating Role of Work Engagement and Employee Task Proactivity," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(2), pages 235-251, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:busper:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:235-251
    DOI: 10.1177/2278533720964298
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2278533720964298
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2278533720964298?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohamed Saeed Al Sahi AL Zaabi & Kamarul Zaman Ahmad & Chowdhury Hossan, 2016. "Authentic leadership, work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors in petroleum company," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 65(6), pages 811-830, July.
    2. Jie Feng & Yucheng Zhang & Xinmei Liu & Long Zhang & Xiao Han, 2018. "Just the Right Amount of Ethics Inspires Creativity: A Cross-Level Investigation of Ethical Leadership, Intrinsic Motivation, and Employee Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 645-658, December.
    3. Mary M. Crossan & Marina Apaydin, 2010. "A Multi‐Dimensional Framework of Organizational Innovation: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1154-1191, September.
    4. Muhammad Asif & Miao Qing & Jinsoo Hwang & Hao Shi, 2019. "Ethical Leadership, Affective Commitment, Work Engagement, and Creativity: Testing a Multiple Mediation Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-16, August.
    5. Rego, Arménio & Sousa, Filipa & Marques, Carla & Cunha, Miguel Pina e, 2012. "Authentic leadership promoting employees' psychological capital and creativity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 429-437.
    6. Qiuzhen Ren & Yingjie Xu & Ranran Zhou & Jingdong Liu, 2020. "Can CEO’s Humble Leadership Behavior Really Improve Enterprise Performance and Sustainability? A Case Study of Chinese Start-Up Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-25, April.
    7. Juan Yang & Bo Pu & Zhenzhong Guan, 2019. "Entrepreneurial Leadership and Turnover Intention in Startups: Mediating Roles of Employees’ Job Embeddedness, Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, February.
    8. Rego, Arménio & Sousa, Filipa & Marques, Carla & Pina e Cunha, Miguel, 2014. "Hope and positive affect mediating the authentic leadership and creativity relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 200-210.
    9. Philippe Mustar & Mike Wright & Bart Clarysse, 2008. "University spin-off firms: Lessons from ten years of experience in Europe," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 67-80, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luxmi Malodia & Indu Goyal, 2023. "Psychological Process that Links Authentic Leadership with Followers’ Creative Behaviour," Metamorphosis: A Journal of Management Research, , vol. 22(1), pages 28-37, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher Winchester & Kelsey E. Medeiros, 2023. "In Bounds but Out of the Box: A Meta-Analysis Clarifying the Effect of Ethicality on Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 713-743, March.
    2. Nidhi Yadav & Shikha Dixit, 2017. "Authentic Leadership and Employees’ Work-related Quality of Life: A Study of IT Organizations in India," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(4), pages 222-222, March.
    3. Sajjad A. Afridi & Bilal Afsar & Asad Shahjehan & Zia U. Rehman & Maqsood Haider & Mehboob Ullah, 2020. "Retracted: Perceived corporate social responsibility and innovative work behavior: The role of employee volunteerism and authenticity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1865-1877, July.
    4. Mariola Laguna & Karolina Walachowska & Marjan J. Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn & Juan A. Moriano, 2019. "Authentic Leadership and Employees’ Innovative Behaviour: A Multilevel Investigation in Three Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-17, October.
    5. Lyngdoh, Teidorlang & Liu, Annie H. & Sridhar, Guda, 2018. "Applying positive psychology to selling behaviors: A moderated–mediation analysis integrating subjective well-being, coping and organizational identity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 142-153.
    6. Bordei, Irina & Santos, Joana & Gonçalves, Gabriela & Sousa, Cátia, 2019. "The influence of authentic leadership on public employees analyzed through self-determination theory: A case study in Republic of Moldova," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 7(2), pages 125-143.
    7. Ozlem Uzunsaf Yamak & Serife Zihni Eyupoglu, 2021. "Authentic Leadership and Service Innovative Behavior: Mediating Role of Proactive Personality," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440219, January.
    8. Luxmi Malodia & Indu Goyal, 2023. "Psychological Process that Links Authentic Leadership with Followers’ Creative Behaviour," Metamorphosis: A Journal of Management Research, , vol. 22(1), pages 28-37, June.
    9. Sarfraz, M. & Qun, W. & Abdullah, M.I. & Tahir, S., 2019. "Authentic Leadership, Hope, Work Engagement and Creativity," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 8(1), pages 19-31, February.
    10. Jing Zhang & Lynda J. Song & Yue Wang & Guangjian Liu, 2018. "How authentic leadership influences employee proactivity: the sequential mediating effects of psychological empowerment and core self-evaluations and the moderating role of employee political skill," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, December.
    11. Ki Baek Jung & S. M. Ebrahim Ullah & Suk Bong Choi, 2021. "The Mediated Moderating Role of Organizational Learning Culture in the Relationships among Authentic Leadership, Leader-Member Exchange, and Employees’ Innovative Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-12, September.
    12. Aishwarya Singh & Santoshi Sengupta & Swati Sharma, 2018. "Towards a Better Understanding of the Relationship Between Authentic Leadership and its Positive Outcomes: A Theoretical Framework," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(02), pages 1-20, April.
    13. Arménio Rego & Dálcio Reis Júnior & Miguel Pina e Cunha, 2015. "Authentic Leaders Promoting Store Performance: The Mediating Roles of Virtuousness and Potency," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 617-634, May.
    14. Swen Nadkarni & Reinhard Prügl, 2021. "Digital transformation: a review, synthesis and opportunities for future research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 233-341, April.
    15. Hsiao, Chan & Lee, Yi-Hsuan & Chen, Wan-Jun, 2015. "The effect of servant leadership on customer value co-creation: A cross-level analysis of key mediating roles," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 45-57.
    16. Tal Shahor, 2018. "Is the Marginal Effect of Education on Income Diminishing?," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 4, May - Aug.
    17. Bruneel, Johan & Clarysse, Bart & Bobelyn, Annelies & Wright, Mike, 2020. "Liquidity events and VC-backed academic spin-offs: The role of search alliances," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(10).
    18. Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & López-Cabarcos, M. Ángeles & Romero-Castro, Noelia María & Pérez-Pico, Ada María, 2020. "Innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge in the business scientific field: Mapping the research front," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 475-485.
    19. Silvia Cosimato & Roberto Vona, 2021. "Digital Innovation for the Sustainability of Reshoring Strategies: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-16, July.
    20. van den Broek, Tijs & van Veenstra, Anne Fleur, 2018. "Governance of big data collaborations: How to balance regulatory compliance and disruptive innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 330-338.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:busper:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:235-251. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.