Relational digital leadership for creative performance: does remote work intensity matter?

Purpose In today's dynamic, hyper-connected and digital age, organizations require digital leadership that can navigate digital transformation challenges while staying creative, agile and competitive. This paper aims to investigate the impact of enabling digital leadership (EDL) and mentoring digital leadership (MDL) on the creative performance of remote workers, as well as the moderating role of remote work intensity on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach To test the research hypotheses, the study administered a questionnaire survey method to remote employees in the Indian IT/ITeS Sector. SmartPLS 4 software version 4.1.0.1 was used to perform partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings Path analysis revealed the significant impact of EDL on remote employees' creative performance. Further, importance-performance map analysis highlighted that enabling open spaces for experimentation, interdisciplinary teamwork and flexible working methods were the most significant indicators of EDL for creative performance. MICOM and multi-group analysis revealed a non-significant moderating role of remote work intensity on the studied relationships. Practical implications For human resource professionals, EDL can help promote remote workers' creativity by developing an open-error organizational culture, championing psychological safety and flattening traditional team hierarchies. Social implications The non-significant moderating effect of remote work intensity reinforce the significance of leadership style rather than remote work arrangement. Originality/value This study is the first to identify the most contributing indicators of EDL for fostering creativity among remote workers in the Indian IT/ITeS sector using the digital leadership framework.