University of Twente Student Theses
Humble Leadership: Relevance to Employees’ Creativity and Innovation Under the Consideration of Time Pressure
Strüfing, Stella (2014) Humble Leadership: Relevance to Employees’ Creativity and Innovation Under the Consideration of Time Pressure.
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| Abstract: | Creative and innovative behavior of employees became increasingly important for organizations seeking to compete in fast-moving environments where innovation increases the likelihood to gain a competitive advantage. One of the key sources of employees’ creativity is seen in successful leadership. Meanwhile, corporate scandals and the remarkable failures in moral and ethical judgment by highly visible leaders contributed to an increased focus on the topic of humility in organizational research and to the conceptualization of humble leadership - a leadership style that considers followers as equal and valuable partners. The aim of this research is to investigate humble leadership as defined by Owens and Hekman (Owens & Hekman, 2012) in an organizational context and its relevance to employees’ creativity and their innovative behavior. Time pressure is also integrated here as a contextual factor since it was found to influence the effectiveness of humble leadership (Owens & Hekman, 2012). By employing a qualitative approach, the research builds on the interviews with 16 leaders from several German organizations who have a professional background in creativity and innovation. The analysis has revealed that humble leadership is beneficial for the creativity and motivation of employees and facilitates an independent and engaged working employee. However, under time pressure leaders tend to demonstrate a less humble leadership style and incline towards more structured and intervening behavior. These findings suggest that humble leadership does not always produce beneficial outcomes but rather depends on the employees’ personality. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology, 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/64933 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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