Servant Leadership and Follower Creativity Via Competence: A Moderated Mediation Role of Perceived Organisational Support

Abstract

The precedents of creativity comprise an important research topic that could help organisations survive fierce competition. To contribute to the literature on creativity, the authors examined the roles of competence and perceived organisational support (POS) in the relationship between servant leadership and follower creative behaviour. The authors proposed and tested a moderated mediation model with data from leader-follower dyads collected in a Vietnamese engineering firm. The results showed that follower competence is a significant mediator of the relationship between servant leadership and follower creativity. Furthermore, POS has a moderated mediating role, such that the mediated relationship (i.e., servant leadership, competence, and creativity) is more salient under high POS than under low POS. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.