Transformational Leadership, Organizational Climate and Individual Creativity from a Military Culture Perspective

Alper Kayaalp

Abstract


The goal of the current study was to advance understanding of the relationship between transformational leadership and follower creativity in a military context. We examined how followers' individual perceptions of transformational leadership are related to their individual creativity under the boundary condition of organizational innovative climate in a military context. As a typical military culture is characterized with features like high hierarchy, formal management structures, conservatism, emphasis on status quo, and high formalization; leadership, climate and creativity variables seem a good avenue of research for such contexts. The results suggested that transformational leadership was significantly associated with individual creativity and the strength of this relationship was contingent upon innovative climate. The study extends the prior work on creativity in several ways. First, this study made a contribution toward a better understanding of the relationship between transformational leadership and creativity in a military context, which is not always expected to favor creativity. Second, the study examined an important moderator that has been neglected in previous research in military contexts: organizational innovative climate. 


Keywords


transformational leadership; creativity; climate; military culture

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References


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