Managers can boost employee creativity by empowering leadership, earning trust

A new study has revealed that managers can boost employee creativity by "empowering leadership" and earning employees' trust.

According to a new study by Rice University and American University, empowering leadership may be especially effective at promoting creativity for those who have high levels of both uncertainty avoidance and trust in their supervisors.

The researchers said that they also found that creative self-efficacy (the degree to which the employees themselves believed they are capable of being creative) was a psychological mechanism that explained the three-way interaction's effect on creativity.

It was found that managers might empower leadership by giving an employee the autonomy and freedom to carry out his or her job in the way that the employee deems to be the best way to achieve the company's goals and objective, or by getting an employee involved in decision-making processes. This approach worked well with employees who avoid "high uncertainty." They need and value detailed and consistent rules, directives and expectations.

The study found that to effectively encourage employee creativity, managers need to be aware that their own leadership behavior plays a key role in eliciting creativity from employees with different characteristics and to set the stage for enhancing creativity in their employees, managers first need to establish whether they can demonstrate empowering leadership behavior.

The study was published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.