Impact of authentic leadership on employees’ creative work behavior: a mediated moderated model

Purpose Employees’ creativity is a critical factor in today’s dynamic working conditions. This study investigates the impact of authentic leadership on the creative work behavior of employees through psychological empowerment as a mediating mechanism. Moreover, the study also aims to examine the moderating role of organizational identification, drawing upon social identity theory. Specifically, organizational identification is expected to moderate the relationship between psychological empowerment and creative work behavior. Furthermore, it can also potentially moderate the indirect effect of authentic leadership on creative work behavior through psychological empowerment. Design/methodology/approach We collected a total of 314 valid responses from the employees working in private and public sector organizations within the telecommunications sector in Sindh, Pakistan. Findings We analyzed the data using Mplus 8.0. Our findings revealed that authentic leadership leverages creativity via psychological empowerment. Moreover, authentic leadership potentially acts as a moderator. Our results also found support for conditional indirect effects. Originality/value Leaders’ authenticity is an emerging concept. Its role in producing a creative workforce is still in the developmental stage. This study highlights that managers must be trained to develop the traits of authentic leadership and organizational identification so that they can raise employees’ psychological empowerment and creative work behavior.