Universal Values, Creative Behavior and Leadership: Turkish Case

Abstract

Organizational creativity has become one of the major research areas in the field of organizational behavior during the last two decades. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the association between universal individual values and employee creative behavior and explores the mediating effect of leadership on the relationship between individual values and employee creative behavior. The research sample was chosen from service sector employees owing to the fact that the role of leadership and motivation for creativity is especially important in knowledge intensive, complex and uncertain environments. Survey method was used to examine the perceptions of the respondents about individual values and leadership style, and their impact on self-perceived creative behavior. Hierarchical regression and Sobel Test were applied to examine the mediating effect of leadership on individual values and employee creative behavior relationship. The results show that the individual value dimensions of self direction, achievement, and universalism explain the majority of variance in employee creative behavior. The findings of both the hierarchical multiple regression analysis and the Sobel test support the partial mediating effect of leadership on individual values and employee creative behavior relationship. The originality of the paper is related to the attempt for understanding the mediating effect of leadership on individual values and creativity relationship which has been under-researched in the literature. Furthermore, the study intends to contribute to a new and important research agenda through the examination of the relationship between universal basic values and employee creative behavior in a sample of Turkish employees.