How and when does transformational leadership affect organizational creativity and innovation? : Critical review and future directions

Purpose – The present research attempts to review literature on the effects of transformational leadership on organizational creativity and innovation. It is well recognized that organizational creativity and innovation are crucial for an organization and even for the whole society. Transformational leadership exerts great impact on organizational creativity and innovation. With the increase of empirical studies, relevant variables and research findings are from all kinds of perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to sort relevant works out, incorporate them into an overarching framework and suggest a few future directions which are both critical and viable, so that future researchers may easily find the “gap” and fit their prospective works properly. Design/methodology/approach – The research is conducted by first perusing recent and major papers on the subject which have been published on high quality journals. The paper sorts out pivotal mediators and moderators, and sheds light on the their effects. Findings – Although the conclusions drawn from different studies are somewhat inconsistent, most scholars found a positive relationship between transformational leadership and organizational creativity and innovation. Transformational leadership can influence organizational creativity and innovation both directly and indirectly. The bulk of this paper is about the indirect effects of transformational leadership. The mediators and moderators are from different levels including individual, team and organizational level. In addition, some contextual variables are also included. Originality/value – The paper is the first to review the literature by focusing on the effects of transformational leadership on organizational creativity and innovation. It incorporates various factors into a whole framework which covers three levels and includes internal and external contexts. It makes the relevant findings clear, points out the strengths and weaknesses of the extant literature. It also brings forward future research directions which can be a valuable reference for other researchers.