Leadership: A Narrative Process Theory of Creativity Emergence

Abstract

Research Question: This research examines how employee creativity emerges through integrated approaches and proposes a model of strategic organizational leadership grounded in process theory. Motivation: Leadership strategies, activities, and processes have been identified as critical components of strategic management models. However, theory and research in this domain are predominantly grounded in static constructs rather than dynamic process theories. To address this gap, we develop and verify a process-oriented theory of creativity emergence. This theory explains how strategic organizational leaders and employees interact to enact creativity, one of the most essential capabilities for innovation in the digital age. It also explains how these interactions contribute to the success of digital transformation and other forms of organizational transformation. Idea: The central idea of this study is to develop a narrative process theory of creativity by integrating key conceptualizations into a strategic organizational leadership model. Findings: We integrate the core concepts and dynamic mechanisms underlying creativity and use them to develop a theory of creativity emergence. The theory explains why, how, and when creativity emerges, as well as the components and mechanisms through which the elements of the model and its strategies interact. The model addresses the research question and contributes to the development of a strategic organizational leadership model that explains the emergence of employee creativity. Contribution: The key contribution of this research is the development and validation of a narrative process theory approach as a coherent theoretical framework for explaining the mechanisms through which employee creativity emerges from integrated approaches. The study advances a model of strategic organizational leadership that accounts for the dynamic emergence of creativity within organizations.