The Impact of Authoritarian Leadership on Creativity :The Moderating Effect of Organizational Justice and the Dual Mediating Effects of Job Autonomy and Intrinsic Motivation

Abstract

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, members' creativity plays an increasingly decisive role in the survival and development of companies, and many studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between authoritarian leadership and creativity. However, many previous studies only address the direct effects of autocratic leadership, claiming negative effects between them, and there needs to be more research attempting to reveal the relevant mechanisms. Therefore, based on social exchange theory and Confucianism, this study investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation and job autonomy and the moderating role of organizational justice in the relationship between the boss's authoritarian leadership and creativity from various angles, targeting 303 Chinese workers based on Confucianism. The primary purpose of this study is to provide meaningful implications from a theoretical and practical perspective. As a result of the empirical analysis, first, the negative relationship between authoritarian leadership and creativity was significant. Second, the mediating effects of job autonomy and intrinsic motivation were confirmed in the relationship between authoritarian leadership and creativity. Third, the moderating effect of organizational justice was confirmed in the process of influencing the supervisor's authoritarian leadership on creativity through members' job autonomy. In other words, the higher the organizational justice, the weaker the negative relationship between authoritarian leadership and job autonomy, and the moderated mediation effect was also found to be significant. On the other hand, the moderating effect of organizational justice was insignificant in the relationship between authoritarian leadership and intrinsic motivation. These research results are expected to provide meaningful implications from a theoretical and practical perspective by examining the effectiveness of authoritarian leadership on Chinese workers from various angles.