Impact of participative and authoritarian leadership on employee creativity: organizational citizenship behavior as a mediator

Purpose The aim of this study is twofold; to test the effects of participative and authoritarian leadership styles on employee creativity; and to examine whether organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) mediates the relationship between these leadership styles and employee creativity. Design/methodology/approach A survey tool was employed in this research for data collection from the staff at higher education institutions in Malaysia. The collected data were analyzed via PLS-SEM to verify research hypotheses and reach at conclusions. Findings The outcomes verified that participative leadership positively affects OCB as well as employee creativity. The findings also demonstrated that authoritarian leadership does not really have any impact on the creativity and OCB of employees. Finally, the results demonstrated that OCB mediates the connection between a leader's participative approach and employee creativity, while its mediating effect among authoritarian leadership and employee creativity is not supported. Originality/value This paper addresses research gaps in the existing literature with regards to the role of participative and authoritarian leadership in predicting employee creativity through OCB. There are also scarce research studies on the linkages among the chosen constructs, particularly in higher education context.