Negative Creativity in Leader-Follower Relations: a Daily Investigation of Leaders’ Creative Mindset, Moral Disengagement, and Abusive Supervision

Abstract

Contributing to abusive supervision, creative leadership, and negative creativity research, we examine how and when leaders’ creative mindset relates to interpersonal aggression toward followers in the form of abusive supervision. Drawing upon moral disengagement theory, we theorize that leaders’ daily creative mindset positively relates to daily episodes of abusive supervision via state-based moral disengagement. Furthermore, we propose that trait-based moral disengagement moderates this indirect process such that low trait-based moral disengagement diminishes this effect. We found support for our hypotheses using a longitudinal study with a daily data collection over a 2-week period (Study 1) and an experimental study (Study 2). Our findings reveal the potential perils of leader creativity in leader-follower contexts and the importance of considering the moral disengagement process.