Leadership Styles and Competitive Advantage: Does Employee Creativity Mediate The Relationship

Abstract

Competitive advantage is considered as an element which is critical to achieve. This study argued  that employee creativity is important for gaining competitive advantage. Likewise. the study also  argued that leadership behavior play a significant role in developing creativity among employees.  For the purpose of colleting the data three leadership behaviors which are supported by the  literature in incorporating employee creativity for gaining competitive advantage have been  chosen. The data for transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and autocratic  leadership has been collected from the prior studies. The reliability and validity of the instrument  has also been ensured and the data has been collected from department of Government housing  programs in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah – UAE. The results of partial least square, structural  equation modeling revealed that transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and  autocratic leadership has a direct and significant positive impact over employee creativity as well  as competitive advantage. The findings further ensured that employee creativity mediates the  relationship between transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and autocratic  leadership and competitive advantage. The findings have practical as well as theoretical  significance. At the end some limitations and future recommendations are also mentioned.