FOSTERING CREATIVE WORK ENGAGEMENT: THE ROLES OF KNOWLEDGE-ORIENTED LEADERSHIP AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING

<p>Leadership is one of the essential elements that fosters creative work engagements in organisations. This study investigates the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership and creative work engagement, as well as the contextual role of knowledge sharing in facilitating this relationship in Asaba, Delta State. The study used a structured questionnaire to collect data from 191 clinical workers, conveniently sampled from a state-owned hospital. The data collected was analysed using the partial least squares [PLS] structural equation modelling method. The analysis revealed that knowledge-oriented leadership has a significant and positive influence on creative work engagement, with knowledge sharing acting as a partial mediating factor. The study concluded that knowledgeoriented leaders can promote knowledge sharing to maximise their significant and positive influence on employees' engagement in creative activities. The study made several recommendations to strengthen the connections and boost employees' engagement in creative work. Among them is the need to curate leadership trainings to develop the ambidextrous behaviours associated with knowledge-oriented leadership, with a focus on enhanced communication and motivation. Furthermore, organisations should frequently develop in-house leadership trainings and sponsor employees, partly or fully, to externally organised training programmes. </p>