K W A M E AN SO N G W A D E I

L U C H E N
J OS E P H F R E M P ON G
W IL LI A M A N S AH A PP I E N T I

The Mediation Effect of Ethical Leadership and Creative

Performance: A Social Information Processing
Perspective

ABSTRACT
Drawing upon social information processing theory, the study examined how ethical leadership shapes
creative performance. Specifically, we tested a theoretical model integrating the sequential roles of psycho-
logical safety and creative self-efficacy. A two-waved sample of 512 supervisor-subordinate dyads from front-
line employees of three service industries located in Ghana was administered. The results of the hierarchical
linear modeling analysis revealed that there is a positive relationship between ethical leadership and creative
performance and that psychological safety positively and significantly mediates the relationship between ethi-
cal leadership and creative performance. Similarly, creative self-efficacy significantly and positively mediates
the relationship between ethical leadership and creative performance. Moreover, both psychological safety
and creative self-efficacy sequentially mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and creative perfor-
mance. We discuss the implications of these results for research and practice.
Keywords: ethical leadership, psychological safety, creative self-efficacy, creative performance, social informa-
tion processing theory.

INTRODUCTION
Workplace creativity has become an inherently indispensable and valuable characteristic critical for orga-
nizational success and survival (Antwi et al., 2018; Puccio, 2017). For organizations to be innovative and
sustainable, the person who leads and inspires creative behavior is essential (Amabile & Pratt, 2016). Given
that, the productive application of creative ideas makes organizations grow; (Hennessey & Amabile, 2010)
hence how leaders influence employee creative performance has been a perennial question asked by most
organizational researchers and managers (Bai, Lin, & Li, 2016; Carmeli, Reiter-Palmon, & Ziv, 2010). Crea-
tive performance is not only “the production of novel and useful ideas concerning products, services, meth-
ods, or procedures produced but also the process by which creative outcomes are achieved” (Zhang &
Bartol, 2010a). Creative performance does not always occur in isolation (Amabile & Pratt, 2016). It is often
posited that personal and contextual characteristics do interact in the creative process, and leaders are noted
to be such contextual factors (Shalley, Zhou, & Oldham, 2004). Thus, to expedite creative performance
among employees, one of the established human resource practices is to create an enabling environment
and instill confidence in employees when performing task.
Although prior studies have explored how ethical leaders affect creative performance, (Chen & Hou,
2016; Ma, Cheng, Ribbens & Zhou, 2013; Younas, Wang, Javed, Rawwas, Abdullah, & Zaffar, 2018) yet the
causal mechanisms of ethical leaders on creative performance are scarcely known. However, the role of ethi-
cal leaders in creative performance deserves more attention, especially in this era that most academic
researchers and management practitioners are calling for more exploration in this area (Lemoine, Hartnell &
Leroy, 2019; Tu & Lu, 2016). We therefore explore and answer the questions of whether and how ethical
leadership enhances creative performance using the social information processes perspective. Ethical leader-
ship refers to “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and

The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 0, Iss. 0, pp. 1–14 © 2020 Creative Education Foundation (CEF). DOI: 10.1002/jocb.449 1
Why Ethical Leadership Improve Creative Performance

interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communica-
tion, reinforcement, and decision-making” (Brown, Trevino & Harrison, 2005).
In this paper, we draw upon the social information processing theory to unfold the sequential mediation
mechanisms between ethical leadership and creative performance. According to the theory, an individual
processes information based on the understanding of how his/her cognitive and behavioral responses come
about through social interactions (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978; Zalesny & Ford, 1990). Because one’s behaviors,
attitudes, and perceptions are affected by social information, all behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions of an
individual are presented as a result of cognitive products of information processing (Boekhorst, 2014). In
explaining the linkages between ethical leadership and creative performance, we posit two mechanisms to
have a high potential to mediate the relationship sequentially. Specifically, psychological safety, the first
emotional mediator, is defined as “the shared belief that it is safe to take risky behaviors without any nega-
tive consequences” (Edmondson, 1999). The second cognitive mediator, creative self-efficacy, refers to “an
individual’s perception/belief that he or she is capable of producing or achieving creative outcomes” (Tier-
ney & Farmer, 2002).
Generally, leaders nurture social environments that influence creative performance (Odoardi et al.,
2019). Consequently, social information processing theory explains that social interactions with significant
others, such as leaders and peers, determine cognitive and behavioral responses (Boekhorst, 2014). Using
social information processing theory, we argue that increased positive exchanges of information from signifi-
cant others (leaders and peers) change perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, which enhance employee cre-
ative performance (Ou, Tsui, Kinicki, Waldman, Xiao, & Song, 2014). Employees rely on such cues from
leaders to confirm how they understand the environment in the organization and then set or regulate their
cognitions accordingly to suit the environment (Gu et al, 2018). Ethical leaders can help their followers
understand the value of normatively appropriate behaviors by using their status as “moral persons” and
“moral managers” to disburse information which they deem novel. They could also seek out opportunities
to support and encourage followers to feel safe in discharging their duties (Lemoine et al., 2019). This social
information also guides employees in their interpersonal interaction to take risk since they perceive the envi-
ronment to be safe. Since risk-taking is part of the creative process (Shalley et al., 2004), many employees
tend to shun away from it. Ethical leaders create a perception of safety by being fair and treating employees
with respect no matter the outcome of their creative efforts (Hu, Erdogan, Jiang, Bauer, & Liu, 2017). This
would enable employees to experiment with new ideas and support other creative efforts of workmates lead-
ing to the production of novel and useful ideas (Edmondson & Lei, 2014). Moreover, these ethical leader-
ship behaviors would also make employees feel confident in interacting and exchanging information to
identify problems, find prospects for enhancement, devise innovative ideas, and suggest relevant alternatives
before arriving at final solutions (Jiang & Gu, 2015).
The following is the contribution of the current study to literature. Firstly, we contribute to the literature
of creativity and innovation by exploring its antecedents using ethical leadership as a probable construct in
achieving creative performance. This is because organizational innovations come about by implementing cre-
ative ideas successfully (Hennesy & Amabile, 2010). Secondly, we contribute to the literature on ethical lead-
ership by explaining the sequential mediation mechanism (i.e., psychological safety and creative self-efficacy)
between ethical leadership and creative performance. Our study endeavor highlights the critical engagements
of employee’s creative self-efficacy when ethical leadership exerts a significant effect on psychological safety
and in turn creative performance. Again, on the methodological front, we collected multisource data in dif-
ferent service industries, answering the call by Kao, Pai, Lin, and Zhong (2015) for further research using
data from several industrial sources so that the findings could be generalized. Lastly, our study does con-
tribute to the social information processing perspective by integrating the emotion process (psychology
safety) with the cognition process (creative self-efficacy) to explain the social information processing mecha-
nism between ethical leadership and creative performance.

THEORY AND HYPOTHESES

SOCIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY
Social information processing theory suggests that employees’ work attitudes and behaviors are shaped
by how they try to understand their work environments by making sense out of it as well as how they inter-
act and exchange information with one another (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978). Prior studies on the social infor-
mation processing theory have validated its implications on organizational leadership studies (e.g.,
Boekhorst, 2014; Ou et al., 2014; Peng, Wang, & Chen, 2018; Yang, Huang, & Wu, 2018).

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 Journal of Creative Behavior

Employees rely on cues or signals from leaders to confirm how they understand the environment in the
organization and then set or regulate their cognitions accordingly to suit the environment (Gu, Chen,
Huang, Liu, & Huang, 2018). Thus, the statements and behaviors of ethical leadership provide a cue to
members and indicate that members are safe, which makes them believe in themselves to undertake task
and produce novel outcomes. Moreover, as employees interpret the information in such a context, they then
experience a shared belief in their interpersonal interaction to take risk since they perceive the environment
to be safe.
Furthermore, ethical leadership is considered to acts both as a “moral person” (being fair and honest)
and a “moral manager” (reinforcing desired behaviors) and such behaviors convey to employees that they
are respected and their inputs are valued and appreciated (Lemoine et al., 2019). As a result, they feel recog-
nized and a shared perception of safety in the work environment thereby making them get the confidence
to engage in creative—relevant activities hence creative performance (Bonner, Greenbaum, & Mayer, 2016).
Accordingly, we propose that faced with ethical leadership, information is being processed by employees
through a two-way communication of leaders’ actions and interpersonal relationships and then harmo-
niously adjust their perception and behaviors to the work environment thereby increasing their creative per-
formance.

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND CREATIVE PERFORMANCE

Ethical leadership enhances the creative behaviors of employees by adhering to proper management tech-
niques and being fair in organizational dealings (Brown & Trevi~ no 2006). Ethical leaders are considered to
be people-oriented and thus respect the nature of each of their followers (Schaubroeck et al., 2016). They
delegate responsibilities and assign tasks to their followers based on each of the follower’s distinctive needs
and abilities, thereby offering them discretion to make decisions and opportunities for organizational devel-
opment (Ma et al., 2013). These ethical leader behaviors make followers feel respected and trusted to iden-
tify organizational problems, search for solutions, and come out with novel and useful ideas.
Similarly, while ethical leaders reinforce creative behaviors by adhering to creative standards (Chen &
Hou, 2016), yet they do not discourage or insulate their low-creativity members from the creative process
by treating their members fairly regardless of the resulting performance levels (Bonner, Greenbaum, &
Mayer, 2016). Ethical leaders may offer extra care and support for members with low creative performance
to improve their creativity (Brown et al., 2005). These behaviors can also serve as a role modeling behavior
for other employees thereby encouraging them to perform prosocial behaviors (Tu, Lu, Choi, & Guo, 2018),
such as sharing creative ideas with coworkers, refining ideas, giving positive feedback on submissions, and
supporting others in developing novel solutions (Dhar, 2016). Accordingly, we hypothesize;
Hypothesis 1: Ethical leadership is positively related to creative performance.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AS A MEDIATOR

Remarkably, studies on ethical leadership revealed that creative performance is achieved through several
distinct mechanisms, such as voice behavior (Chen & Hou, 2016), job satisfaction (Ren & Chadee, 2017),
and intrinsic motivation (Tu & Lu, 2016). These studies have underscored the social mechanisms that may
clarify the consequence of ethical leadership on creative performance. Hence, we extend prior research by
using social information processing theory to explain ethical leadership effects on creative performance.
Creative performance is noted to be an activity full of uncertainties and risks (Zhang & Bartol, 2010a);
hence, employees can only demonstrate creativity when the organizational climate reduces such uncertain-
ties. Therefore, we argue that ethical leadership as per their interpersonal disposition of being fair and hon-
est in employee dealings would reduce such uncertainties in organizational undertakings. Employees on the
other hand, due to their interpretation and interaction with the leader, would construe the social environ-
ment to be safe for risk-taking and possibly come forth with novel and useful ideas. Given that in a psycho-
logically safe climate, employees can freely express creative ideas (Liang et al., 2012), they are thus liberated
from potential harms and interpersonal risks to their image (Tu et al., 2018). Consequently, such a high
psychological safety climate would induce employees to challenge the status quo, willingly propose ideas,
and may even implore others to come out with novel and useful ideas because they tend to believe that they
would not be criticized for doing so (Wang, Gan, Wu, & Wang, 2015).
Again, as leaders normatively demonstrate appropriate behavior and reinforce mutual respect and con-
cern for employees’ creative efforts (Lam, Loi, Chan, & Liu, 2016), they tend to reciprocate that social

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Why Ethical Leadership Improve Creative Performance

behavior toward others in the organization thereby urging each of them to refine and better ideas proposed
(Liang et al., 2012). Hence, we argue that this mediation occurs because, in a psychologically safe environ-
ment, members have strong positive feelings about the organization and feel that they are capable of accom-
plishing organizational tasks without criticisms resulting in creative performance. Accordingly, we
hypothesize:
Hypothesis 2: Psychological safety mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and creative
performance.

CREATIVE SELF-EFFICACY AS A MEDIATOR

Interestingly, most leadership researchers have highlighted the importance of both leadership and creative
self-efficacy in ensuring creative performance (Carmeli et al., 2010; Jiang & Gu, 2015; Mittal & Dhar, 2015;
Peng et al., 2018). Our study intends to examine the impact of how social information processes influence
ethical leadership on creative performance using creative self-efficacy as an intermediary mechanism. Crea-
tive self-efficacy is attained by employing: verbal persuasion, vicarious experience, and enactive mastery
(Bandura, 1997). For employee creative performance at the workplace, they must have the confidence that
they are capable of accomplishing creative tasks successfully. Also, they must have some sources of persis-
tence and tenacity from some normative standards set by ethical leaders. These standards induce and allow
them to continue their creative endeavors, especially whenever they are facing difficulties and failures
(Brown et al., 2005; Javed et al., 2019). Also, a key personal characteristic recognized to relate to employee
creative performance is individual self-confidence (Bandura, 2008). Hence, ethical leaders’ relational disposi-
tion and promotion of respect and support for employees’ ideas do boost the confidence in employees’ abil-
ities (Lam et al., 2016). This proposition validates social information processing theory, according to which
employees perceive a strong sense of personal mastery through a developed self-efficacy, which is an essential
motivation in idea generation and implementation even in challenging situations (Bandura, 2008). Employ-
ees with a high sense of self-efficacy are more probable to initiate and stand through a challenging goal and
also apply extra effort in attaining those goals even if it means challenging the status quo (Ren & Chadee,
2017). Again, prior studies have revealed that employees’ creative levels in their work are mostly attained by
those who are thought to be highly self-efficacious because they proactively start creative solutions and thus
enjoy and keep performing creative activities (Tierney & Farmer, 2002). Drawing upon social information
processing theory, we argued that ethical leadership relational disposition and normative standards boost
employees’ confidence making them take and bear risks (Wang et al., 2015) and then come up with creative
ideas to solve pertinent organizational issues (Liang et al., 2012). Accordingly, we hypothesize:
Hypothesis 3: Creative self-efficacy mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and creative
performance

THE SEQUENTIAL MEDIATING ROLES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND CREATIVE SELF-

EFFICACY
In conclusion, although from the above analysis, there is a suggestion that ethical leadership increases
creative performance through psychological safety and creative self-efficacy. A critical question is how psy-
chological safety and creative self-efficacy may relate to each other in the social context and the process of
creative performance? Using the social information processing model, we further posited that confronted
with ethical leadership, organizational members may process the information provided after consultation
and discussion with other members and congruently adjust their behaviors and cognitions to the task,
thereby increasing creative performance. Thus, the ethical leader can directly change the perception of the
organizational climate, thus provide a conducive and safe context through which employees would enhance
employee creative self-efficacy indirectly (Younas et al., 2018). Hence, we argue that psychological safety can
contribute to the development of creative self-efficacy, thereby leading to creative performance.
Furthermore, an ethical leader’s behavior plays a central role in linking psychological safety and creative
self-efficacy in enhancing creative performance because it set the social cues for the formation of employees’
interpretation of the work environment. These, in turn, would guide their perceptions and performance
evaluations of the members and provide useful ideas that could be used to characterize the organizational
climate (Boekhorst, 2014; Yang et al., 2018). As ethical leaders promote standards concerning organizational
goals and reinforce such behaviors among employees, specific social attributes become significant due to the

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social influences hence psychological safety. Consequently, psychologically safe members would naturally feel
the tendency to share information and take risks (Edmondson & Lei, 2014; Hu et al., 2017), and through
mutual respect and positive criticism instill a sense of belief among members thereby leading to creative
self-efficacy (Frazier et al., 2017). Acceptably, creative performance is enhanced and intensified by creative
self-efficacy (Wang et al., 2015). Hence, the linkage concerning creative self-efficacy and creative perfor-
mance is viewed socially as how employees communicate, examine, and validate those ideas in the organiza-
tion (Amabile, 1996). Thus, in a psychologically safe environment, members would get the confidence to
employ creative undertakings like identifying problems, generating and evaluating solutions, and executing
those ideas even through difficulties (Carmeli et al., 2010; Shalley, Gilson & Blum, 2000). Theoretically, it is
of interest to note that psychological safety may not only mediate the relationship between ethical leadership
and creative performance but also the relationship between creative self-efficacy and creative performance
(Younas et al., 2018). Overall, we posit that the ethical leadership ? psychological safety ? creative self-ef-
ficacy ? creative performance stream is more probable. Accordingly, we hypothesize:
Hypothesis 4: Psychological safety and creative self-efficacy sequentially mediate the relationship
between ethical leadership and creative performance
The overall theoretical model is shown in Figure 1.

METHOD
SAMPLE AND PROCEDURES
We collected the data from the frontline staff of three service industries (health, finance, and telecommu-
nication) across three regions of Ghana (Greater Accra, Kumasi, and Takoradi). We collected multisource
data in different industries, answering Kao et al. (2015) call for empirical research on ethical leadership
behaviors and employee behavior using multiple industries. The companies were chosen from Alumni MBA
members who are working in either of the three industries in Ghana. The authors compiled the list of those
who can help access their firms’ and arranged a meeting with each contact person in the organization and
their HR managers. After seeking approval from top executive members with a letter explaining the project,
the HR managers then provided the authors with a list of work units or workgroups who would participate
in the survey. The team of researchers then coded the questionnaires and then distributed them to employ-
ees and their corresponding leaders. The research team introduced the purpose and the method of filling
the questionnaire to the participants before completing the questionnaire. After the questionnaires were
filled out, they were placed in a blank envelope and returned directly to the research team to ensure the
confidentiality of the survey results. The survey was conducted in two waves with a time interval of 3 weeks.
In the first wave (W1) of the survey, employees evaluated the ethical leadership behaviors of their direct
leaders and their psychological safety; in the second wave (W2) of the survey, the same employees evaluated
their creative self-efficacy, and the leaders rated employees’ creative performance at the same time.
In the first survey, a total of 719 employee questionnaires were issued, and 603 questionnaires were col-
lected, with a response rate of 83.87%. In the second survey, a total of 698 employee questionnaires and 197
leader questionnaires were distributed, and 551 employee questionnaires and 171 leader questionnaires were
collected. The response rates were 78.94% and 86.80%, respectively. After eliminating the invalid and
incomplete questionnaires, 512 employee questionnaires and 157 leader questionnaires were useful; the

FIG 1. Theoretical model

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Why Ethical Leadership Improve Creative Performance

effective response rates were 81.44% and 86.80%, respectively. Finally, 512 dyads of valid leader–employee
samples were formed.
The final sample shows that 61.30% of employees are male, with an average age of 35.21 years
(SD = 3.62), and the average work tenure of employees is 6.93 years (SD = 2.46). The majority of employ-
ees have a bachelors’ degree, about 73.7%, followed by a masters’ degree, about 15.6%. In terms of leaders,
males are about 85.40%, with an average age of 44.5 years (SD = 7.3), and the average work tenure is
17.09 years (SD = 7.61). The majority of leaders have a master’s degree, about 48.40%, followed by a bache-
lor’s degree, about 40.12%. The test revealed no significant differences between respondents and non-re-
spondents in gender, age, and education using analysis of variance (ANOVA).

MEASUREMENT
We measured the study variables using a six point-Likert-type scale with 1 for “strongly disagreed” and
6 for “strongly agree” to avoid central tendency bias among respondents. All the instruments used in the
study were in English.

Ethical leadership
We measured ethical leadership using Brown et al.’s (2005) ten-item scale. Sample items states, “My
supervisor has the best interest of employees in mind.” and “When making decisions, he asks, “what is the
right thing to do?”. This scale has been used and validated by Wang et al. (2015) and Yesßiltasß and Tuna
(2018).

Psychological safety
Psychological safety was accessed using a 7-item scale developed by Edmondson (1999). Sample items
include “If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you,” and “Members of this team are
able to bring up problems and tough issues.”

Creative self-efficacy
To measure employees’ creative self-efficacy and confidence concerning creative work, we used the three-
item scale of creative self-efficacy by Tierney and Farmer (2002). Examples include “I have confidence in my
ability to solve problems creatively” and “I feel that I am good at generating novel ideas.”

Creative performance
In measuring creative performance, we used the 13-item scale by Zhou & George (2001) and completed
by the supervisors of the employees. Examples include; “The employee can propose new ways to achieve the
goal” and “This employee comes up with new and practical ideas to improve performance.”

Control variables
Following previous studies (e.g., George & Zhou, 2007; Perry-Smith, 2006; Shalley et al., 2000), we con-
trolled the demographic characteristics that may influence employees’ creative performance, such as gender,
age, educational level, and work tenure. Age and work tenure are reported as the actual number of years.
Gender and educational level were dummy coded. Gender had two categories (1 = male; 2 = female), and
educational level had five categories (1 = below high school diploma, 2 = high school diploma, 3 = higher
national diploma, 4 = bachelor’s degree, and 5 = master degree and above).

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS AND CORRELATIONS

Table 1 depicts the descriptive statistics and variable correlations. From the table, all the correlations
among the model variables are significant and in the same direction as predicted. Also, we will only show
the results of the core model variables to maintain the parsimony of the model in the subsequent hypothesis
testing section (Becker, 2005).

EXPLORATORY AND CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS

Before we verify the hypothesis, we carry out a series of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirma-
tory factor analyses (CFA) with SPSS 25 and AMOS 23 to validate the consistency and stability of the mea-
surement. Firstly, we used Cronbach’s coefficient to measure the inner consistency and stability. Table 2

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 TABLE 1. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations
Variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1. Supervisor age 44.52 7.29 1
2. Supervisor gender 1.15 0.36 .316** 1
3. Supervisor education 4.37 0.68 .131 .066 1
4. Subordinate age 35.98 4.18 .077 .019 .065 1
5. Subordinate gender 1.39 0.48 .065 .002 .100 .024 1
6. Subordinate education 4.05 0.39 .156 .018 .219** .105* .029 1
7. The subordinate’s tenure with 4.81 1.62 .061 .004 .037 .300** .081 .092* 1
supervisor
8. Ethical leadership(W1) 4.72 0.64 .047 .032 .009 .147** .059 .039 .056 1
9. Psychological safety (W1) 4.89 0.76 .072 .003 .044 .062 .109* .054 .022 .220** 1
10. Creative self-efficacy (W2) 4.57 0.91 .077 .008 .002 .068 .029 .026 .034 .431** .605** 1
11. Creative performance (W2) 4.85 0.70 .017 .035 .023 .068 .12** .010 .017 .328** .737** 0.736** 1
Notes: Reliability (alpha) appears within parentheses on the diagonal. n = 512; ** p < 0.01 and * p < 0.05.
Journal of Creative Behavior

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Why Ethical Leadership Improve Creative Performance

TABLE 2. Construct Reliability and Validity

Variable Cronbach’s a KMO Composite Reliability (CR) AVE (MSV)
Ethical leadership 0.911 0.882 0.931 0.659 0.634
Psychological safety 0.904 0.894 0.912 0.536 0.178
Creative self-efficacy 0.868 0.818 0.893 0.680 0.627
Creative performance 0.938 0.907 0.883 0.716 0.634

depicts the reliability test of the construct, where all the scores indicate the reliability of >.7, indicating a
high internal consistency for the measurement.
Also, we test and measure sampling adequacy for each variable in the model and the complete model.
The results of the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) values are as follows: ethical leadership (.882), psychological
safety (.894), creative self-efficacy (.818), and creative performance (.907). The KMO values of all variables
in this test are above 0.7, indicating high correlation and how suited our data are for factor analysis; there-
fore, the requirement for exploratory factor analysis is met as shown in the result. The validity of the model
is high, based on the values of the construct.
For factor reliability in the CFA, we used the composite reliability (CR) where all the CR is >.7 also indi-
cating a higher level of satisfaction and the quality of the model reliability (Gaskin & Lim, 2016; Hu & Ben-
tler, 1999). We also calculated the average variance extracted value (AVE) and the maximum shared squared
variance (MSV) to assess the main variables. Due to some cross-loadings, some of the items were removed,
thus, those with a factor loading lower than 0.6 to achieve adequate discriminate validity. Also, the test of
the construct is shown in Table 2 (i.e., ethical leadership, psychological safety, creative self-efficacy, and cre-
ative performance). For validity, all the AVE is >0.5, indicating high convergent validity (Hu & Bentler,
1999). Further, the result of the maximum shared squared variance (MSV) is also shown in Table 2. It can
easily be seen that the average variance extracted (AVE) is greater than the maximum shared squared vari-
ance (MSV). This shows that discriminant validity between latent variables is good (Hair, Black, Babin, &
Anderson, 2010).

RESULTS
Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to perform the hypothesis testing for this study. The hier-
archical linear modeling (HLM) fits this analysis because the variables for our study include variables at the
individual level. Hence, we use this regression technique to test the effects of the within-group and between-
group variance at that level (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). Also, non-independence observations are regulated
in this model while different levels of analysis among the variables measured are examined; hence the covari-
ate effects that vary within and among higher-order clusters are captured (Hofmann, 1997; Rabe-Hesketh &
Skrondal, 2008). This assists the researcher with problems associated with other alternatives, and they are
avoided. Moreover, this approach helps researchers to overcome challenges such as failing to address the
interdependence of disaggregated observations or aggregating scores at the higher level that can give rise to
correlated disturbances as well as differences in error variances across the respondents (Rabe-Hesketh &
Skrondal, 2008; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002).
Following the general HLM approach by Hofmann, Griffin, and Gavan (2000), Table 3 depicts the
results of hierarchical linear modeling regression. In the first model (M1), its shows the linear regression
model and the control variables only; the next models (M2 and M4) show the regression models containing
control variables as well as the independent variables (ethical leadership and psychological safety); M5 to
M11 show control variables, independent variables, and mediating variables (ethical leadership ? creative
performance; ethical leadership ? psychological safety ? creative performance; ethical leadership ? cre-
ative self-efficacy ? creative performance; ethical leadership ? psychological safety ? creative self-effi-
cacy ? creative performance).

HYPOTHESIS TESTING
The illustration in Table 3 best describes the results of testing hypothesis 1, 2, 3, and 4, after controlling
for supervisors and subordinates age, gender, education, and tenure.
Hypothesis 1 predicts that ethical leadership has a significant and positive effect on creative performance.
By examining the results in Model 8, we observe that the variable ethical leadership has a statistically

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 TABLE 3. Results of Hierarchical Linear Modeling Analysis and Hypothetical Test
PSY (M1–
SEF (M3–M4) CRP (M5–M11)
Variables M2)
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11
Control variables
Supervisor age .095 .087 .087 .047 .048 .014 .048 .074 .013 .017 .026
Supervisor gender .032 .026 .016 .003 .053 .042 .053 .074 .055 .040 .040
Supervisor education .040 .042 .008 .009 .033 .028 .033 .024 .006 .029 .006
Subordinate age .046 .044 .043 .024 .033 .063 .033 .025 .055 .065 .071
Subordinate gender .158 .148 .015 .080 .127 .138 .127 .158 .054 .135 .070
Subordinate education .014 .010 .073 .079 .062 .010 .062 .048 .055 .010 .030
Subordinate tenure with .002 .009 .117 .118 .034 .049 .034 .004 .010 .047 .035
supervisor
Independent variable
ETL .092 .297*** .361*** .031 .141
Mediators
PSY .413*** .699*** .496***
SEF .710*** .724*** .445***
Model summary
R2 .033 .041 .023 .188 .023 .516 .023 .108 .577 .517 .692
F .732 .797 .502 4.280*** .506 19.73*** .506 2.224 22.27*** 17.47*** 32.74***
DR2 .033 .008 .023 .165 .023 .493 .023 .085 .469 .409 .115
DF .732 1.24 .502 30.044*** .506 150.7*** .506 14.87*** 162.89*** 124.35*** 54.276***
Note: ETL = ethical leadership, PSY = psychological safety, SEF = creative self-efficacy and CRP = creative performance, M = model. n = 512; ***
p < .001, ** p < .01, * p < .05.
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Why Ethical Leadership Improve Creative Performance

significant effect on creative performance (p < .001), and that its coefficient estimate is positive. Hence,
Hypothesis 1 is therefore confirmed.
Next, Hypothesis 2 posits that psychological safety mediates the relationship between ethical leadership
and creative performance. From Model 9, the mediating effects of psychological safety and the relationship
between ethical leadership and modeling performance are statistically significant (p < .001). Thus, hypothesis
2 is also supported.
In Hypothesis 3, we posit that creative self-efficacy mediates the relationship between ethical leadership
and creative performance. From Model 10, the mediating effects of creative self-efficacy and the relationship
between ethical leadership and creative performance are statistically significant (p < .001). Thus, hypothesis
3 is supported.
Finally, Hypothesis 4 posits that both psychological safety and creative self-efficacy mediate the relation-
ship between ethical leadership and creative performance. The results from Model 11 reveal a positive coeffi-
cient of psychological safety and creative self-efficacy mediating the relationship between ethical leadership
and creative performance implying a statistically significant relationship (p < .001). Thus, hypothesis 4 is
supported.

DISCUSSION
Our objective was to integrate ethical leadership, psychological safety, and creative self-efficacy to under-
stand the social information process that shapes creative performance and also how the two mediators relate
to one another in the process leading to creative performance. The results support our postulation that ethi-
cal leadership does influence creative performance and psychological safety mediate the link between ethical
leadership and creative performance, thus, confirming the positive effects of how ethical leaders influences
employee creativity (Ma et al., 2013; Younas et al., 2018) as well as motivating employees to perceive psy-
chological safety in the organization (Walumbwa & Schaubroeck, 2009).
Furthermore, creative self-efficacy positively mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and cre-
ative performance, thereby supporting previous explanations of this relationship as well (Wang et al., 2015).
Finally, both psychological safety and creative self-efficacy mediate the relationship between ethical leader-
ship and creative performance. Our understanding of the social information processing mechanisms is
expanded by these findings, thereby clarifying the conditions through which ethical leadership impacts cre-
ative performance (Boekhorst, 2014; Peng et al., 2018). More important, we elucidate the positive emotional
and cognitive states that result from ethical leaders acting as a moral person and a moral manager by
demonstrating and reinforcing appropriate behaviors, thereby setting the social and information exchange
processes among members. These interactional states, in turn, motivate employees in the process of produc-
ing novel and useful ideas.

THEORETICAL IMPLICATION
Our study makes four clear-cut theoretical contributions. First, we make an overall contribution by
building and verifying a conceptual model that exclusively incorporates ethical leadership with creativity
using social information processing theory. Hence, this is an answer to a recent call for an empirical study
into leadership influence on creative performance (Puccio, 2017; Yesßiltasß & Tuna, 2018). We found that
ethical leadership enhances creative performance when transmitting social cues to employees regarding nor-
mative behaviors and organizationally approved activities. Employees in return would pick on these cues on
what they can and cannot do, and shape their perception of a psychologically safe climate. This would con-
sequently boost their self-confidence in sharing and refining ideas leading to creative performance. This
finding deepens the understanding of ethical leadership’s relationship based on the social information pro-
cessing perspective (one that demonstrates normatively appropriate behaviors, honesty, corporate trust, and
communication). It may further allow employees to feel safe and confident to look beyond their viewpoint
and incorporate others’ viewpoints thereby helping them explore unique options, and champion new ideas.
Second, the connections between ethical leadership and the emotion and cognition of employees are also
vital because psychological safety was positively associated with creative self-efficacy. In addition to confirm-
ing the direct link between ethical leadership and creative performance (Tu et al., 2018), the study’s findings
also specify that employees experience the need to exchange information with other counterparts in a secure
organizational climate and as such psychological safety also mediates the relationship mentioned above. The
result supports the notion that ethical leadership is likely to have a stronger impact on psychological safety
to the extent that members led by ethical leaders easily feel safe to try risky ventures. Furthermore, our

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 Journal of Creative Behavior

study clarifies the positive linking of psychological safety and creative self-efficacy in a sequential mediation
order (Younas et al., 2018). Specifically, it is built on theoretical arguments for and validated a link between
psychological safety and creative self-efficacy using social information processes.
Third, by investigating the relationship of a sequential mediation contributes further to the leadership lit-
erature by investigating when and how ethical leadership has a more effective influence on creative perfor-
mance. Consequently, we answered the call coming from the inconsistent outcomes reported in the meta-
analytic research (Lemoine et al., 2019) to question the unsophisticated nature of ethical leadership–follower
creativity relationship. The outcome of the sequential relationship offers supplementary clarity to the shifty
relationship between ethical leadership and creative performance. This reasoning is in line with studies that
show that ethical leaders’ behavior is positively related to creative performance (Chen & Hou, 2016; Ma
et al., 2013). Therefore, psychological safety and creative self- efficacy are essential peripheral conditions that
can augment creative performance.
Lastly, the research adds to the literature on creativity by validating the significance of a leader’s norma-
tive behavior in explaining employee creative outcomes. As discussed previously, existing studies’ have
focused on how ethical leadership operates in the context of organizational climate, customer service, and
firm performance (Schaubroeck et al., 2016; Shin et al., 2015; Yesßiltasß & Tuna, 2015). The study presents a
renewed dimension of the way ethical leadership shapes creative performance by inducing the way members
evaluate the relationships they have, not only with supervisors but also with colleagues. Moreover, its impli-
cation extends and validates propositions by creativity researchers that differs from how ethical leadership is
affected by creativity using intrinsic motivation, psychological or learning processes (Eisenbeiss & van Knip-
penberg, 2015; Yang, 2014). The theoretical standpoint above, as well as empirical confirmation, broaden
the interactive margin of ethical leadership effects on creative performance.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
This research’s findings also add to the literature on managerial practices. First, concerning promoting
employee creative performance, the leadership style does matter (Zhang & Bartol, 2010a). We thus suggest
that training programs that focus on guiding the managers of teams to exhibit an ethical style of leadership
to raise the level of normatively appropriate behaviors among members should be encouraged by manage-
ment. Second, the study emphasizes the importance of psychological safety, creative self-efficacy, and their
relevance in shaping the creative processes. Managers must recognize that psychological safety and creative
self-efficacy provide a mediating link between ethical leaders and creative performance. Leaders of teams
need to be aware of the extent to which these variables shape their members’ creative processes: members
with high levels of psychological safety and creative self-efficacy display creative performance, especially
under the guidance of an ethical leader (Chen & Hou, 2016). It would lead to greater awareness for the
detection of the direct and indirect influences of ethical leadership in the social, informational processes that
relate to creativity. Third, this study provides practical knowledge about the ethical leadership effect of
information processes and exchanges since leaders’ behavior is critical, especially in encouraging creative
performance at the workplace (Yang, 2014). Based on our results, organizations can recognize the effective-
ness of ethical leadership regarding effectively demonstrating normative behaviors toward employees and
changing their perceptions and attitudes toward their respective organizations. Our model can serve as cata-
lysts to help alter the information processes of followers into higher levels of creative performance.

LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

This study also has some limitations. The study firstly narrowed on ethical leadership as the only antece-
dent. Other leadership behaviors like empowering leadership and authentic leadership must be considered in
future researches (Boekhorst, 2014; Zhang & Bartol, 2010b). Second, the sample was chosen from Ghana
only. Meanwhile, different samples would have enhanced the understanding of cross-level processes among
creativity and leadership studies. The replication of our study must be carried out in different cultural set-
tings to confirm or challenge our conclusions, that is, Western or Asian settings. Third, the research focuses
on ethical leaders using a social information process and creativity among employees; the researchers failed
to add mechanisms at the team level to serve as a comparison against each other. Further empirical studies
must include individual-level plus team-level mechanisms to compare the roles of each of them. Finally,
more objective indicators can be used to measure creative performance. The role that leadership plays in
employee creative performance is dependent on the level of creative outcome (Herrmann & Felfe, 2014). We

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Why Ethical Leadership Improve Creative Performance

recommend that further studies on creativity must employ qualitative and quantitative methods to find out
if there would be a more significant correlation.

CONCLUSION
Notwithstanding its limitations, this paper brings a more precise interpretation of ethical leadership, psy-
chological safety, creative self-efficacy, and their influences on creative performance. Specifically, the findings
by this research point out that enhancing and promoting ethical leadership could be an outstanding asset to
institutions that want to strengthen employee creative performance. Our study helps in filling the existing
research gaps in the literature by discovering sequential mediating processes with social information pro-
cesses to understand creative performance as a new perspective. In the same way, future research must lay
greater emphasis on social information processes as a mechanism for enhancing effective information shar-
ing and creative performance.

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Kwame Ansong Wadei, Lu Chen, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Joseph Frempong, Koforidua Technical University
William Ansah Appienti, Kumasi Technical University
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lu Chen, School of Management and Economics, Centre for West
African Studies, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Email: chenlu@uestc.edu.cn

AUTHOR NOTE
We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
71472024, No. 71533002). We thank Eric Osei Owusu (National Civic Education - Ghana) for assistance in data
collection and analyses.

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