Balancing paradoxes in SMEs: The interplay of paradoxical leadership and role clarity in predicting creative potential
Abstract
This article deals with the interactive effects of paradoxical leadership and role clarity in predicting creative process engagement in teams. Small and medium-sized enterprises rely on their employees to engage in creative processes to ensure adaptability and competitiveness, especially in volatile and complex working environments. Despite extensive research on creativity, there is limited evidence on how organizational factors jointly influence creative processes in teams. Building on findings that paradoxical leadership fosters team creativity and that role clarity shapes organizational conditions for creativity, we investigate their joint effects on creative process engagement in teams. Based on the paradox model of creativity and role theory, we hypothesise that paradoxical leadership promotes team creative process engagement, moderated by role clarity. Results show that paradoxical leadership predicts team creative process engagement. This effect is stronger with higher role clarity. Our findings underscore the importance of leadership and role clarity as organizational factors in fostering creativity and offer valuable insights for practice and future research.
Keywords
creativity, creative process engagement, teams, paradoxical leadership, role clarity, small and medium-sized enterprises
How to Cite
Fröhlich, P., Meidrodt, F., Lenz, D., von Geibler, J., Roj, R., Liedtke, C., & Diestel, S. (2026). Balancing paradoxes in SMEs: The interplay of paradoxical leadership and role clarity in predicting creative potential. EWOP in Practice, 20(1), 41–58. https://doi.org/10.21825/ewopinpractice.94667
121
Views
41
Downloads