Linking paradoxical leadership to employee creativity: Testing a three-way interaction model

This paper examined the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee creativity with special reference to workplaces in South Korea. We also explored the conditions under which this relationship is strongest, focusing on core self-evaluation and organizational diversity as moderators. We conducted a survey of 215 Korean employees, applying a hierarchical regression analysis to test our hypotheses. The empirical results indicated that paradoxical leadership was positively related to employees’ creativity. Moreover, core self-evaluation and organizational diversity strengthened the positive effects of paradoxical leadership on creativity. These findings have implications for organizational leaders seeking to deepen their understanding of the conditions that maximize the positive effects of paradoxical leadership and improve employee creativity.