The Paradox of Leadership as a Mechanism of Individual Creativity: Empowering versus Servant Leadership

This study investigates whether styles of leadership (empowering versus servant) affect the relationship between the attachment styles of followers and their creativity through their intrinsic motivation. In doing so, it integrates and refines theories of leadership and personal attachment. I measured and compared interactions of leadership styles and individual attachment styles in relation to individual creative performance. My aim was to determine whether these interactional effects differed in anxiously and avoidantly attached individuals. The results indicated the following. (1) Empowering leadership was positively related to avoidant followers' intrinsic motivation, and was negatively related to anxious followers' motivation. (2) Servant leadership, by contrast, was positively related to anxious followers' intrinsic motivation and was negatively related to avoidant followers' motivation. (3) Intrinsic motivation mediated the joint impacts of the interaction of leadership styles and followers' attachment styles on creativity. In conclusion, associations of an anxiously attached individual with a servant leader, and of an avoidantly attached individual with an empowering leader, generated more creativity. I discuss the theoretical contribution and managerial implications of these findings for current research and practice.