Leadership sagacity and its relationship with individual creative performance and innovation

Purpose – The creativity literature has largely overlooked an important construct associated with progressing beyond individual creative performance (i.e. the generation of an idea) to innovation (i.e. the implementation of an idea). That missing construct is leadership sagacity. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the role that sagacity plays between individual creative and innovative work. The authors also aim to discuss the importance of obtaining empirical organizational evidence that creative performance mediates the relationship between leadership supportive behavior and innovation as leadership sagacity plays an integral role among these vital relationships. Design/methodology/approach – The authors provide theoretical reasoning for why sagacity is an important construct with regard to the relationships among leadership supportive behavior, individual creativity and innovation. Findings – It is concluded that leadership sagacity is key to the production of innovative work. Practical implications – It is vital for a leader who has approval authority for the allocation of resources and support to have a high level of sagacity, so that they have the level of discernment necessary to decide which creative ideas should be championed toward innovation. Originality/value – Leadership sagacity is defined as the possession by an individual in an authority position of keen mental discernment, good judgment and wisdom necessary to recognize valuable work. This construct adds value to the creativity and innovation literature, yet it has been largely overlooked.