The relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity

Abstract

This research comprised an investigation into the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. The overall aim of the research was to determine whether creativity in organisations can be linked to transformational leadership behaviours. A literature review was done to conceptualise transformational leadership and organisational creativity and to identify the theoretical relationship between these concepts. During the investigation it was found that a relationship does exist between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. A one-way ANOVA analysis and post hoc analysis were performed to address the empirical research questions. The descriptive statistics were analysed in terms of senior management and middle management, and their raters. The data analysis revealed that the research results were largely supportive of the theoretical research findings on the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity. With regard to senior management, it was found that most raters rated their teams as creative, despite the fact that a relationship between transformational leadership and organisational creativity could not be determined due to the small sample size. With regard to middle management, it was found that a correlation existed between inspirational motivation, idealised influence (attributes and behaviour) and organisational creativity. It was further found that there was a correlation between senior management’s perceptions of their transformational leadership attributes and their direct reportees’ perceptions. There were significant differences between middle managers’ perceptions of certain elements of transformational leadership and that of their direct reportees.