Zhao Jinguo, Sun Wei, Zhang Shujie, Zhu Xiaohong
School of Management, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, China.
School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 May 21;11:748. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00748. eCollection 2020.
The creative thinking and ability of top management team (TMT) members is important in coping with rapid changes in the external environment and improving the competitive advantage of an organization. This research focuses on the CEO-TMT interface to explain how CEOs influence TMT characteristics, which in turn affects TMT outcomes. Based on social learning theory, this study examines the associations among CEO ethical leadership, TMT cohesion, and TMT creativity in a Chinese context using a total of 91 TMTs. To verify the reliability and validity of the constructs, a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were run. The results showed that the hypothetical model captured distinct constructs and fits the data well. A multistep regression method was used to test hypotheses. The results indicated that: (a) CEO ethical leadership has a positive effect on TMT creativity; (b) TMT cohesion plays a mediating role in the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and TMT creativity; and (c) power distance plays a moderating role in the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and TMT creativity. The greater the power distance, the weaker the positive relationship between CEO ethical leadership and TMT creativity. This study demonstrates the value of CEO ethical leadership and advocates the importance of establishing team cohesion and building a psychologically safe environment to motivate top managers within an organization to share information and knowledge to improve creativity.
高层管理团队（TMT）成员的创造性思维和能力对于应对外部环境的快速变化以及提升组织的竞争优势至关重要。本研究聚焦于首席执行官（CEO）与TMT的接口，以解释CEO如何影响TMT的特征，进而影响TMT的成果。基于社会学习理论，本研究在中国背景下，以总共91个TMT为样本，考察了CEO道德领导力、TMT凝聚力和TMT创造力之间的关联。为验证各构念的信效度，进行了一系列验证性因子分析（CFA）。结果表明，假设模型能够捕捉到不同的构念，且与数据拟合良好。采用多步回归方法对假设进行检验。结果表明：（a）CEO道德领导力对TMT创造力有正向影响；（b）TMT凝聚力在CEO道德领导力与TMT创造力之间起中介作用；（c）权力距离在CEO道德领导力与TMT创造力之间起调节作用。权力距离越大，CEO道德领导力与TMT创造力之间的正向关系越弱。本研究证明了CEO道德领导力的价值，并倡导建立团队凝聚力和营造心理安全环境的重要性，以激励组织内的高层管理者分享信息和知识，从而提高创造力。
