Supervisor Gender, Employee Creativity, and the Mediating Role of Interaction Frequency
Document Type
Audio
Keywords
AOM annual meeting proceedings 2024; AOM Chicago; entrepreneurship
Publisher
Academy of Management
Publication Source
Academy of Management Journal
Rights Management
Copyright of Academy of Management Journal.
Abstract
While it is well established that leader characteristics influence employee outcomes, little is known about whether and how leader gender influences employee creativity. Traditionally, female leaders are considered a mismatch for prototypical leadership roles, resulting in less optimal employee outcomes compared to male leaders. In this paper, by drawing on social role and leader-member exchange (LMX) theories, we argue that female supervisors may have advantages over male supervisors and may serve as a catalyst to encourage employee creativity. In the empirical analyses, we test our hypotheses using data from German, Japanese, and South Korean foreign subsidiaries located in China. Results confirm our hypotheses and show that female supervisors have a positive influence on employee creativity, and the frequency of supervisor-employee interaction mediates this relationship. The contributions of the study to creativity and leadership literature are discussed.
