AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP STYLE AND ACADEMIA'S CREATIVITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND MOOD AS MEDIATORS.

• Author: Ahmad, Ifzal

1. Introduction

   Due to the rapid technological developments and changing nature of business processes, organizational environment in general and human resource in particular are more turbulent now than ever. As a result, organizations need to be more creative to survive, grow and lead (Jung et al., 2003). Creativity is a crucial factor that has the potential of not only tackling such challenges but it also serves as a leading force for knowledge development and uplifting the social and economic development (European University Association, 2007).

   Zhou and Shalley (2008) explained creativity as the ideas related to products, services, procedures and processes that are both novel and useful for organizations (Shalley et al., 2004). The notion of creativity received considerable attention in the past decade from different scholars, academics and practitioners (e.g., Shalley et al., 2004; Isaksen and Akkermans, 2011; Cerne et al., 2013) and hence, substantial evidence suggests that creativity significantly contributes to innovation and other organizational outcomes (Amabile, 1996). The same demand for creativity applies to higher education institutions (HEIs). However, very little focus has been given to this particular sector in the past studies, particularly to its employees' (i.e., teachers and researchers) creativity (European University Association, 2007).

   As HEIs are the main players in developing the human resource of a country, they have a central responsibility of nurturing the learners to understand their potential and creativity (Jackson, 2008; Berkovich, 2014). For fulfilling this task, the 'teachers and researchers' (henceforth academia) also need to be creative, to cope with the challenges and expectations faced by HEIs. The focus on the creativity of the academia is thus of particular importance, because it is this group of people, whose efforts in the form of teaching and research, impact every spectrum of society. Due to these multidimensional perspectives and expectations from HEIs, leadership style of their managers (i.e., heads of departments at all levels) becomes critical (Berkovich, 2014). Evidence from research on other sectors suggests that different contextual and personal factors (e.g., motivation, personality, cognitive styles, demographic variables and leadership styles, etc.) influence the creativity of employees (Amabile, 1996;Isaksen and Akkermans, 2011; Cerne et al., 2013).

   However, the findings of these studies have variations (Zhou, 2003; Alrifi, 2012), particularly with regards to leadership styles. For example, one study conducted by Frese et al. (1999) suggested that due to supervisor's encouragement, employees tend to be more creative. Whereas George and Zhou (2001) argued that supervisor's close monitoring is negatively associated with employees' creativity. In another study, Gumusluoglu and Ilsev (2009) showed a positive relationship between transformational leadership and employees' creativity. A closer look reveals that these studies have focused on different leadership styles, however there is paucity in research on Authentic Leadership Style (ALS) (Luthans and Avolio, 2003; Walumbwa et al., 2008), which is a relatively newly developed and less researched style especially in the context of HEIs and their academia's creativity (Rego et al., 2012, 2014).

   Authentic leaders, through their deliberate attempts in the HEIs, facilitate and encourage such an environment which motivates employees intrinsically to bring out the best of them in terms of their creative behavior (Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009). The notion of intrinsic motivation showed a partial mediation between transformational leadership and creativity in the past researches in other sectors (i.e., Shin and Zhou, 2003; Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009). However, Shalley and Perry-Smith (2001) in their study also could not prove any significant mediation of intrinsic motivation. Shalley et al. (2004) suggested that one of the reasons of such weak mediation can be other contextual factors in play such as the mood of the employees. Moods are pervasive states which are temporary and can be influenced by contextual factors (George and Brief, 1992) such as leadership. We also think in similar lines and propose a model where we argue that the mood of employees and their intrinsic motivation as suggested by Shalley et al. (2004) are both important mediators between ALS and employees' creativity, and need to be studied together, which will hopefully fill the above mentioned void. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to fill this void by examining the effect of ALS on creativity of academia with mediating role of intrinsic motivation and mood in HEIs.

2. Conceptual framework and hypotheses

   2.1. Authentic Leadership Style (ALS) in HEIs

   Authentic leadership is defined by Walumbwa et al. (2008) as 'a pattern of leader behavior that draws upon and promotes both positive psychological capacities and a positive ethical climate, to foster greater self-awareness, an internalized moral perspective, balanced processing of information, and relational transparency on the part of leaders working with followers, fostering positive self-development' (Walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 94). Based on this definition, authentic leadership style is a four-dimensional concept: self-awareness, relational transparency, internalized moral perspective and balanced processing.

   Self-awareness means to know one's own self, acknowledge and understand your strengths and weaknesses, attitude, mental capacity, and values and beliefs (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). Relational transparency means to be one's real self, genuine and not fake to himself as well as towards the team members by sharing true, relevant and timely information including one's true feelings and considerations (Kernis, 2003). Internalized moral perspective means that leaders must have strong moral values which cannot be tilted by peer pressure and other environmental factors (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). The leaders must adhere to such values which are only based on high standard of morality and which arise from one's own inner conscious (Ryan and Deci, 2002). Finally, balanced processing means to evaluate a situation from all the angles before arriving at any conclusion while minimizing personal liking and disliking (Gardner et al., 2005). This also means that leaders must be open to suggestions from other employees and key stakeholders while refraining from rigidity along with a flexible attitude which promote creativity and innovation (Isaksen and Akkermans, 2011; Cerne et al., 2013).

   Most of the literature around ALS argues that leader's actions and words must not contradict, and they should demonstrate what they say (Gardner et al., 2005; Walumbwa et al., 2008). Such a behavior is most needed in HEIs as leaders of these institutes have a key role in building the nation by developing its human resource (Opatokun et al., 2013). Since authentic leaders exhibit high moral standards, are aware of one's own self, open and transparent in their dealings, and have a balanced approach for taking key decisions, they will give priority to their academia and institutions' needs over their personal needs. Thus, by behaving ethically, leaders will improve relationship with the academia which will also improve their sense of psychological safety and eccentric idea generation (Avolio et al., 2004; Zhang and Bartol, 2010; Opatokun et al., 2013).

   2.2. Authentic Leadership Style and academia's creativity

   Today, it is a known fact that the focus of organizations is now shifting from a traditional resource based view to a more knowledge based view. Therefore, the creativity of employees must be augmented (Zhou and Ren, 2011) to be able to gain a competitive advantage. Particularly for HEIs, the role of creativity is at the center for making these institutions more learning organizations (European University Association, 2006). To better achieve this purpose, the leaders and managers (HoDs) need to create a positive work environment. Authentic leaders focus on the positive behaviors of the subordinates, are more transparent in their dealings and promote a supportive work environment (Peterson et al., 2012). Therefore, these behaviors of leaders will improve the employees' positive attitude towards work with improved self-efficacy and autonomy. Consequently, there are more chances of creativity in employees with high self-efficacy (Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009). Similarly, the theory of self-determination (Deci, 1971) also emphasized that the improved sense of autonomy will lead academia to a more creative behavior at work as they will psychologically feel safe to share new ideas and solutions to the problems with their Heads of departments (HoDs).

   It is further argued that relational transparency, which is a component of ALS, promotes creativity through open expression of ideas, transparent processes and an open communication system. This way, a strong bond between the HoDs and academia will be developed, and they will then...