Boundary Spanning Leadership and Creative Performance: Exploring Psychological Mechanisms and Boundary Conditions

Abstract

In todays fast-changing business environments, organizational innovation and survival are largely contingent upon managing external relationships within and across organizational boundaries. In face of the challenges such as the increasing complexity of tasks, flatter organizational structures, or global competition, leaders as a representative of organizations are thus required to encourage the effective knowledge transfer and creation by bridging diverse and disconnected parties in external areas to achieve competitive advantage. Recognizing the significance of boundary spanning leadership in contemporary organizations, this research aims to advance the current understanding of boundary spanning leadership. First of all, the study investigates how and why boundary-spanning leaders exert influences on employee creative performance. Second, this study examines the psychological mechanisms through which boundary spanning leadership enhances employee creative performance. Specifically, the study suggests employees creative self-efficacy and psychological safety as critical psychological processes for creative performance. Third, taking the contingency perspective of boundary spanning and the interaction framework of leadership, the present study explores two situational factors that can maximize the potential effects of boundary spanning leadership on two psychological mediators. The study proposes empowering leadership as leaders internally oriented behaviors and coworker knowledge sharing as a coworker influence factor.

The current study tested hypotheses using data from 158 subordinate-supervisor dyads. Data were collected through surveys distributed to employees and their direct supervisors from various companies in South Korea. The results revealed that boundary spanning leadership had a marginally significant positive effect on employee creative performance. In addition, boundary spanning leadership was positively related to creative self-efficacy and psychological safety, respectively. The results also demonstrated that both creative self-efficacy and psychological safety mediate the relationship between boundary spanning leadership and employee creative performance. Furthermore, coworker knowledge sharing was found to moderate the effect of boundary spanning leadership on creative self-efficacy. Specifically, the positive relationship between boundary spanning leadership and creative self-efficacy was strengthened when coworker knowledge sharing was high rather than when it was low. However, contrary to prediction, the results did not support the moderating effect of coworker knowledge sharing on the relationship between boundary spanning leadership and psychological safety. Also, the interaction effects of boundary spanning leadership and empowering leadership on creative self-efficacy and on psychological safety were not significant.

This study contributes to the extant literature in several important ways. First, the study enriches boundary spanning research by demonstrating the effectiveness of leaders boundary spanning behaviors in enhancing employee creative performance through improved creative self-efficacy and psychological safety. Moreover, the current study highlights the necessity to examine contingency of boundary spanning work by leaders. Second, this study adds to leadership literature by extending a leaders role from managing internal relationships with employees to managing external relationships with external players within or across organizational boundaries. In addition, the findings of this study provide insights into the interactional perspective of leadership by revealing a role of coworker knowledge sharing as a contingent factor that maximizes the effectiveness of boundary spanning leadership. Despite the unsupported results, the study sheds a new light on the synergy among diverse leadership behaviors by suggesting the interaction effect of boundary spanning leadership and empowering leadership. Lastly, the study contributes to creativity literature by understanding that leader influence (i.e., boundary spanning activities), employees psychological states (i.e., creative self-efficacy and psychological safety), and coworker influence (i.e., coworker knowledge sharing) play critical roles in determining employee creative performance.

Despite some limitations, the present study substantially advances the current understanding of boundary spanning leadership by addressing why, how, and under what circumstances boundary spanning leaders improve employee creative performance. This study reveals that boundary spanning leaders enhance employees creative performance by increasing their creative self-efficacy and psychological safety, both are critical psychological conditions for creative performance. Further, when coworkers actively share knowledge one another, the positive effect of boundary spanning leadership on employees creative self-efficacy is strengthened. This study hopes to stimulate future research to explore boundary spanning leadership.