Are teams with grateful leaders more creative? A Tertius Iungens Perspective

Abstract

Abstract The discrete affective traits of leaders and how they influence team creativity are still unresolved issues in current study. This study, which examines the intervention mechanism of a leader's trait gratitude to predict team creativity, contends that this trait will encourage team leaders to connect with talents, acting as a broker on social network, that is, displaying tertius iungens orientation, and subsequently promote team creativity. The empirical analysis based on the multi-source paired data of 105 working teams indicate that: First, leader tertius iungens orientation plays an mediating role between leader trait gratitude and team creativity; Second, perceived organizational support positively moderate the relationship between leader trait gratitude and tertius iungens orientation; Third, the leader trait gratitude indirectly affects team creativity through tertius iungens orientation, and this positive and indirect relationship is only significant when the perceived organizational support is high. The significance of the research findings in terms of theory and application is also covered in the paper.