State of Science and Unanswered Questions about the Theories of Leadership and Organizational Behavior Emphasizing Creativity and the Management of Innovation

Leadership theories that emerged during the last years placed a greater emphasis on creativity and management of innovation. Glor (1998) in her review of literature on creativity and innovation states that “several writers see leadership as a key linkage between individual creativity and knowledge and organizational innovation.” Indeed much of what is going on in organization is influenced by the leaders and their leadership styles. Hence, the quantity and quality of creativity and innovation is largely influenced by leadership style dominant at an organization. In this paper, we will describe some of the new leadership theories, review the state of science, and identify the unanswered questions about creativity and innovation as leadership part.
King and Anderson’s study pointed out that democratic and collaborative leadership styles were associated with creativity in work groups (Glor, 1998). Leadership matters because leaders motivate employees and motivated employees are more creative (Glor, 1998). Democratic leaders ensure that employees have an effective say in administrative decision-making and those “decisions are not secret, closed to questioning or the outcome of one person’s will or judgment” (Biddle, 2005). Hence, an organization with dominant democratic leadership resembles a democratic country.
Collaborative leadership style means that employees are empowered in order to work together on a project (Turning Point, 2001). Martin (2006) writes about collective leadership which seems to be the same as collaborative. “The very essence of collaborative leadership is knowing how to empower people and do it in such a way that is fruitful for the collaborative and the people involved” (Turning Point, 2001). Empowerment has five “integral” parts such as assessment, vision, shared planning, providing resources, and trust, from which “trust is a key issue in promoting collaborative leadership” (Turning Point, 2001). In order for collaborative leadership to be effective, it should have the following components: flexibility, patience, understanding of others’ viewpoints, sensitivity to diversity, and a cooperative spirit (Turning Point, 2001; Martin, 2006). In relation to innovation, collaborative leadership is effective because of the moderate level of control, flexibility, crossing boundaries, and collaboration (Klemm, 1990; Martin, 2006). …