Leadership and creativity in business

An important role for leadership in business is to stimulate creativity and innovation. To take stock of the state of the science in this respect, the author reviews empirical research on leadership and creativity/innovation in business. This research can be grouped to pertain to transformational leadership; leader-member exchange (LMX), leader support and creative expectations; empowering leadership broadly defined; and an ecclectic category “other.” Key conclusions from this review include the problematic nature of the transformational leadership concept; the potential to integrate perspectives on LMX, support, and expectations for creativity; and the potential to integrate different approaches within the broadly defined domain of empowering leadership. Key mediating processes identified are those related to intrinsic motivation, support, and information integration