When Teamwork Works: Examining the Relationship Between Leader-Member Exchange Differentiation and Team Creativity

Juan Du; Xinyue Lin; Yahua Cai; Fufu Sun; Joseph Amankwah-Amoah

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.646514

When Teamwork Works: Examining the Relationship Between Leader-Member Exchange Differentiation and Team Creativity

Front Psychol. 2022 Jan 21:12:646514. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.646514. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Juan Du¹, Xinyue Lin¹, Yahua Cai², Fufu Sun², Joseph Amankwah-Amoah³

Affiliations

¹ School of Business Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Human Resource Management, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China.
³ Kent Business School, University of Kent, Chatham, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Drawing on team creativity literature and social comparison theory, we investigate how leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation influences team creativity. Using a survey based on 91 R&D teams from Chinese companies, we observe that LMX differentiation is negatively related to team creativity (β = -0.35, p < 0.01). More importantly, we demonstrate that team behavioral integration mediates the relationship between LMX differentiation and team creativity (indirect effect size = -0.72, with 95% CI of -1.91, -0.13), and team emotional intelligence (TEI) moderates the relationship between LMX differentiation and team behavioral integration (β = 0.23, p < 0.05), such that LMX differentiation has a weaker negative influence on team behavioral integration when TEI is higher. These results provide relevant suggestions for organizational team building, management, and development.

Keywords: LMX differentiation; social comparison theory; team behavioral integration; team creativity; team emotional intelligence.