| As the organizational environment becoming more diverse,complex,and competitive,leaders face more intense conflicts or seemingly contradictory needs.Leaders encounter various intractable contradictions in the process of enterprise organizational management,and the resulting tension is inevitable.Leaders are expected to treat each subordinate equally,but at the same time have to consider individual needs and exceptions.They must maintain control by implementing organizational rules and procedures,but at the same time are required to allow employees flexibility and autonomy.Responding to this paradoxical challenge while meeting the needs of the organization and employees is essential for leaders to effectively manage the organization.Therefore,Zhang et al.proposed paradoxical leadership behavior and described paradoxical leadership behavior as: seemingly competitive,but interconnected,so as to meet the competitive needs of organizations and employees in the workplace over time.Given the important role of leaders in the workplace,leadership is widely seen as an important factor influencing the creativity of individual and team.Studies have shown that paradoxical leadership have demonstrated their theoretical implications and potential material impact on employee and team creativity.Although the literatures provide a wealth of evidence to support the role of paradoxical leadership in creativity,Zhang et al.argue that exploring the intermediary mechanism in the relationship between paradoxical leadership and individual and group outcomes is important and necessary.Zhu et al.found that different types of motivation may be related to different types of creativity.This paper is based on the motivational information processing theory(MIP)model,and adopts the research perspective of the theory of social cognitive theory and cognitive affective personality system theory.The relationships among paradoxical leadership and team creativity and individual creativity are discussed from the level of group and individual.Specifically,in this study,the mechanism of the six paths of the three sub-studies that paradoxical leadership ? social motivation(team reflexivity)and cognitive motivation(team efficacy)? Team creativity,paradoxical leadership ? social motivation(team reflexivity)and cognitive motivation(team efficacy)? individual creativity,paradoxical leadership ? cognitive traits(creativity role identity)and emotional traits(affective commitment)? individual creativity are explored.Based on the practical considerations of environmental complexity and diversity,the moderating role of organizational contextual factors(environmental uncertainty)in the above-mentioned effects was examined.The research samples of the three sub-studies in this paper are from the work team leaders of several companies and their subordinates.The study used two-stage paired tracking and multi-source questionnaires to collect data,and used SPSS 22.0,MPLUS 7.40 and other statistical analysis tools to conduct correlation analysis,confirmatory factor analysis,regression analysis,etc.The research hypotheses were tested based on statistical analysis results.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)Paradoxical leadership positively affects team creativity;team efficacy plays a part of mediating role between paradoxical leadership and team creativity;environmental uncertainty positively moderates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and team efficacy;and our further research found that environmental uncertainty moderates the mediating path of paradoxical leadership—team efficacy—team creativity.That is paradoxical leadership promotes team creativity by improving team efficacy when environmental uncertainty is high.Team reflexivity plays a part of mediating role between paradoxical leadership and team creativity;environmental uncertainty positively moderates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and team reflexivity;and further research found that environmental uncertainty has a significant moderating role on the intermediary path of paradoxical leadership—team reflexivity—team creativity,that is,paradoxical leadership promotes team creativity by improving team reflexivity when environmental uncertainty is high rather than low.(2)Paradoxical leadership positively affects individual creativity;team efficacy plays a part of intermediary role between paradoxical leadership and individual creativity;environmental uncertainty has a significant moderating effect on the intermediary path of “paradoxical leadership—team efficacy—individual creativity”.That is to say,when environmental uncertainty is higher that low,team leaders can promote subordinates' creativity in their work by improving their team's sense of efficacy.Team reflexivity plays a part of intermediary role between paradoxical leadership and individual creativity;environmental uncertainty has a significant moderating effect on the intermediary path of paradoxical leadership—team reflection—individual creativity.That is to say,when environmental uncertainty is relatively high,paradoxical leadership improves team members' degree of reflection and advances and promote subordinates to show creativity in their work.(3)Affective commitment plays an intermediary role between paradoxical leadership and individual creativity;environmental uncertainty positively regulates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and affective commitment;environmental uncertainty has a significant moderating effect on the intermediary path of “paradoxical leadership—emotional commitment—individual creativity”.That is to say,compared with the situation of low environmental uncertainty,environmental uncertainty has a significant moderating effect on the intermediary path of “paradoxical leadership-emotional commitment-individual creativity” when it is high.Paradoxical leadership promotes subordinates' creativity in their work by enhancing their emotional dependence on the organization.Creative role identity plays a part of intermediary role between paradoxical leadership and individual creativity;environmental uncertainty does not play a moderating role between paradoxical leadership and creative role identity;and environmental uncertainty has no significant moderating role on the mediating effect of “paradoxical leadership—creative role identity—individual creativity”.The main contributions of this paper are as follows: firstly,this study conforms to the authoritative scholars' judgment on the trend of creativity research,and explores the relationship between paradoxical leadership and team and individual multi-level creativity in the Chinese context,enriching the research in the field of creativity.Secondly,this study discusses the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty between paradoxical leadership and multi-level creativity,and extends the situational boundary of paradoxical leadership on team and individual multi-level creativity.Finally,this study integrates the mediating roles of team level and individual level to explore the impact of paradoxical leadership on individual creativity.This study makes up for the existing research on the mediation mechanism of “paradoxical leadership —individual creativity” focusing on a single individual level or team level or a single path. |
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