Embracing creative nonconformists and promoting them may require leaders' high control appraisals

Abstract

Promoting creative employees is essential to innovation and organizational success. However, leaders do not always embrace the nonconformist nature of creative behaviors. This study examines how leaders' control appraisals—a personal orientation reflecting their belief in their own ability to control situations—influence their receptiveness and support in evaluating the promotability of creative employees. Drawing on theories of interpersonal trust, we posit that even when employees exhibit creative behavior, their leaders may not always develop emotional bonds (affect-based trust) with them because of the unpredictability and risk associated with their nonconformist nature. In particular, we suggest that leaders with higher control appraisals are more likely to form affect-based trust in their creative employees and promote them. Our findings (n = 812) obtained with multiple methods (i.e., a multi-wave survey and a business simulation experiment) support our theoretical model. Our study offers important implications for theory and practice and identifies avenues for future research on the promotion of creative employees.