Authentic Leadership Fostering Creativity in Start-ups: Mediating Role of Work Engagement and Employee Task Proactivity

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of authentic leadership (AL) on employee creativity and the mediating role of work engagement (WE) and employee task proactivity (ETP) in the context of start-ups. Data collected from 300 leaders and 300 employees of Indian start-ups were analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that AL has direct and significant effects on creativity and the same is mediated by WE and ETP. For a start-up, it is essential that employees perceive their founders or leaders to have high moral perspective, clear sense of self-awareness and exhibit transparency in their behaviours with their followers. Such behaviours motivate the followers to invest soulfully in their work and do things in a proactive manner, which then leads to creativity. For any start-up to succeed, both a strong form of positive leadership and high levels of creativity from employees are required.

Keywords

Authentic leadership creativity work engagement employee task proactivity

Introduction

We all have the capacity to inspire and empower others. But we must first be willing to devote ourselves to our personal growth and development as leaders. (George et al., 2007)

With the proliferation of start-ups in the past few years (Pomerol, 2018; Wallin et al., 2018), the world is experiencing an interesting entrepreneurial revolution where entrepreneurs are adding a significant share to the economic growth of their nations (Kuratko, 2007). The creation and sustenance of a new start-up venture call for dedicated vision along with the art of leading and transforming that vision into a reality (Jensen & Luthans, 2006a; Ren et al., 2020; Zaech & Baldegger, 2017). Leadership is of high relevance for the success of start-ups as their foundation and development are inevitably connected with it. Consequently, leadership is increasingly becoming part of the sphere of action of founder-leaders and represents an essential factor for the successful development of the start-up venture (Cogliser & Brigham, 2004; Zaech & Baldegger, 2017).

In the past few years, research on entrepreneurial start-ups has focussed on various aspects of leadership all across the globe such as leadership communication in the context of Chinese start-ups (Men et al., 2018), entrepreneurial behaviour in German and American start-ups (Richter et al., 2018), vertical and team leadership in Slovak start-ups (Ljudvigová & Slávik, 2017), transformational and instrumental leadership in Brazilian start-ups (Chammas & da Costa Hernandez, 2019), entrepreneurial leadership and turnover intention in Swiss start-ups (Yang et al., 2019), leadership lessons in Indian start-ups (Joshi & Achutan, 2018; Singh et al., 2018) and many more. This clearly indicates that the academic fraternity recognises the value of leadership in start-ups and is constantly researching in this domain of high importance. Since the foundation and growth of start-ups are linked to leadership, it becomes imperative to study leadership as an important activity of the founder-leader and as a critical factor in the development of successful new ventures (Cogliser & Brigham, 2004; Zaech & Baldegger, 2017).

There is an essential role played by start-ups in the process of creativity and innovation (Colombo & Piva, 2008; Eggers et al., 2017; Mustar et al., 2008). Regarding the relationship between authentic leadership (AL) and creativity, prior studies indicate that AL is positively related to creativity (Malik et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2017; Zubair & Kamal, 2015) and that AL may contribute to creativity (Meng et al., 2017; Ribeiro et al., 2019; Semedo et al., 2016). Researchers have previously tested the role of employees’ psychological capital (Rego et al., 2012), hope and positive affect (Rego et al., 2014), happiness (Semedo et al., 2017), work-related flow (Zubair & Kamal, 2015), to name a few, in translating AL into employees’ creativity. However, two vital variables are missing in these studies—the role of work engagement (WE), an important factor that contributes to the bottom line of an organisation (Demerouti & Cropanzano, 2010), and employee task proactivity (ETP), a particular form of motivated behaviour at work (Bateman & Crant, 1993). Based upon the recent trends in the literature on AL and creativity, the aim of this research is to specifically examine the role of employee WE and their proactivity in translating founders’ AL into creativity in a start-up. In doing so, we hope to offer an empirical insight into what might influence team members’ creativity with respect to AL and their levels of engagement and proactivity. We examine these associations using quantitative data collected from 300 start-up leaders and their subordinates in India.

Literature Review and Hypotheses Development

Context of Indian Start-ups

Promoting entrepreneurship is one of the best ways for a nation to improve its economy and attract foreign investments that can earn huge rewards in the future (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000). The number of start-ups in India has become bigger over the past few years and has contributed greatly towards the country’s growth (Dinesh & Sushil, 2019). There have been praiseworthy improvements in India towards entrepreneurship, which have encouraged activities of entrepreneurship among graduates to become entrepreneurs and launch their own start-ups with the support of government and financial aid. Start-ups backed by innovative technologies are capable of entering into a niche comfortably and leveraging their organisational flexibility (Hsu, 2008). For the past decade, India has witnessed a substantial rise in start-ups spanning across a wide range of sectors, such as technology, health care, travel, food, lifestyle, ecommerce, fashion, payments, marketing, health and wellness and social impact. While India has especially excelled in entrepreneurial activities related to software exporting and other information technology-enabled service start-ups, there have been numerous failures too (Dinesh & Sushil, 2019). In the current fast-paced digital era, the market is driven by innovation; thus, start-up firms must move towards sustainable innovations (Alenina et al., 2016), which brings us to the need to have strong leadership that can steer creativity and innovation in the workplace.

AL and Employee Creativity

AL, a pattern of leader behaviour that promotes positive psychological capacities and ethical climate, has four basic components: self-awareness, internalised moral perspective, balanced processing of information and relational transparency with followers (Walumbwa et al., 2008). Such a behaviour helps provide an encouraging environment to followers to present their unconventional ideas without fear of repercussions (Avolio et al., 2004). A start-up needs a sound business framework to flourish, which requires the leader to promote creative behaviour in its employees (Nieves et al., 2014). Employee creativity—the ability to generate ideas that are novel and useful (Nayak et al., 2011)—has tremendous contribution in organisational sustainability and in making organisations achieve a competitive edge (Shalley et al., 2004).

There have been linkages between AL with decision-making, presenting information in transparent manner and using balance information that further leads to increase in sense on autonomy (Gardner et al., 2005; Peterson & Kim, 2012). Since autonomy and decision-making are essential antecedents to creativity, it can be said that AL may have a significant relationship with creativity (Nayak et al., 2011). Authentic leaders may stimulate creativity and innovation in their followers since they accept uncertainty and are open to changes (Černe et al., 2013), which encourages employee to put forward their ideas in a more dedicated and positive manner. Therefore, when there is AL in a new start-up venture, employees are keener and more open in sharing their ideas in front of leaders and peers, and are prone to turn their ideas and viewpoints into reality (Jensen & Luthans, 2006a; Shalley et al., 2004). This suggests that AL influences creativity at workplace.

Mediating Role of WE between AL and Creativity

AL and WE

Several researchers have found theoretical linkage between AL and followers WE (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner et al., 2005; Walumbwa et al., 2008). Leadership is the key driver that mobilises an engaged workplace as effective leaders are able to shape employees’ work attitudes and behaviours (Tims et al., 2011). Prior literature has illuminated that authentic leaders make their followers feel more psychologically, physically and cognitively empowered to possess a greater sense of ownership (Ilies et al., 2005; Walumbwa et al., 2010). They are also a fundamental factor that has a positive influence on followers’ psychological state, behaviour and performance, including WE (Walumbwa et al., 2010; Wong et al., 2010). Such leaders create a deep sense of purpose in followers, thereby motivating them (Kohnen, 2003; Singh et al., 2016) and guiding them to remain engaged in their work both mentally and physically, thereby raising the levels of WE through observational learning (Bandura, 1999). Thus, AL increases the involvement, enthusiasm and satisfaction of followers, thereby influencing their WE (Gardner et al., 2005).

WE and Creativity

There is scant empirical research linking WE as a predictor of employee creativity (Gichohi, 2014). Nevertheless, there exists a preliminary link in a study where WE is linked to neuroticism and extraversion, revealing that engaged workers are characterised by high levels of mobility, low neuroticism and high extraversion, which makes them respond well to environmental changes (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). Research expends that employees who are engaged at work are likely to go beyond the task-related boundaries (Bakker et al., 2020). Employees high on WE exhibit employee creativity and innovation, which marks a need for employees to be flexible, innovative and willing to contribute beyond the normal tasks (Sundaray, 2011; Toyama & Mauno, 2017). Such employees are enthusiastic about their work and may engage themselves completely in the job and resulting in displaying employee creativity. WE is improved when leaders demonstrate supportive behaviours and build a healthy environment through the means of proper feedback, trustworthiness, interactional justice, fair decision-making and care (Feng et al., 2018). These supportive behaviours help them to be involved in organisational creative tasks and increased their creativity (Asif et al., 2019; George & Zhou, 2007).

Mediating Role of WE

AL has several positive outcomes to offer to employees, teams, organisations and society as a whole (Walumbwa et al., 2008). As stated earlier, authentic leaders lead followers towards positive emotions, well-being (Chan et al., 2005; Gardner et al., 2005; Wong & Cummings, 2009), trust (Chan et al., 2005; Dirks & Ferrin, 2002), employee creativity (Ilies et al., 2005), WE (Giallonardo et al., 2010; Hassan & Ahmed, 2011; Wong & Cummings, 2009), which results in entrepreneurial success (Jensen & Luthans, 2006b) and firm performance (Musa et al., 2017). A recent study reaffirmed that it is necessary for workplaces to have engaged employees because engagement has been shown to coincide with high levels of creativity (Bakker & Albrecht, 2018; Xanthopoulou et al., 2008). Considering the associations between AL, WE and creativity, it can be hypothesised that WE mediates the relationship between AL and creativity.

H₁: WE mediates the relationship between AL and employee creativity.

Mediating Role of ETP Between AL and Creativity

AL and ETP

AL includes two distinctive and critical components—an inherent moral component and a developmental focus (Walumbwa et al., 2008). Because of these two components, AL behaviour promotes followers’ positive behaviours through certain cognitive and motivational processes (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Avolio et al., 2004). One such positive behaviour is proactive work behaviour or employee proactivity (Liu et al., 2018). Proactive work behaviour involves taking initiative to improve current situations or create new ones by challenging the status quo rather than submissively adapting to current conditions (Crant, 2000). In the start-up set-ups, the uncertainty in environment influences the extent to which a work role can be formalised (Griffin et al., 2007). It can also determine if an employee can be effective by adapting to and initiating change or simply complying with the requirements of a work role (Griffin et al., 2007). Employees are not only required to adapt and change but also needed to react and devise self-initiated and innovative ways (Aragón-Correa, 1998). This uncertainty in the work environment can be reduced by high self-awareness and transparency of the authentic leader, which may enhance employees’ psychological safety and lead to increased proactive behaviours (Liu et al., 2018).

ETP and Creativity

Owing to the pressures for continual improvement and employee creativity, importance of ETP has increased manifold over the years (Campbell, 2000; Parker, 2000). Employees are required to find out new techniques of doing things all by themselves, empower themselves, take decisions (Campbell, 2000; Crant, 2000), take charge (Morrison & Phelps, 1999) and take personal initiative (Frese et al., 1996). The current study advances the research to how proactive task behaviour of an employee can enhance the opportunity to generate new ideas and approaches in the form of employee creativity (Lorenzen, 2009; Shalley et al., 2000). Start-ups often have a flatter organisational structure given the pressure for innovation, which enables employees to take their own initiative (Ilgen & Pulakos, 2000; Parker, 2000). As a result, proactive work behaviour leads to outcomes such as employee creativity. Consequently, proactivity helps employees to engage in a creative process more efficiently and productively and to produce more creative outcomes.

Mediating Role of ETP

Authentic leaders foster internalised regulation processes among followers through positive modelling (Gardner et al., 2005). They create a positive work climate within which employees feel safe to contribute their effort on their jobs. In start-ups, when employees get such a climate, positive work behaviour, such as proactive work behaviour, is induced. This proactivity makes the employees take an active role in their approach towards work and engender a host of affective and cognitive processes that generate excitement about the task, thus fostering intrinsic motivation (Liu et al., 2018). They actively prepare themselves for future by accumulating resources for effecting constructive changes (Gong et al., 2012). Past research states that proactive behaviour plays a critical role in the process of innovation, e.g. by influencing the transition from idea generation to idea implementation (Rank et al., 2004). Employees with proactive work behaviour exhibit more innovative behaviours and generate creative ideas (Gong et al., 2012; Parker & Collins, 2010). Thus, we hypothesise that ETP mediates the relation between AL and creativity.

H₂: ETP mediates the relationship between AL and employee creativity

The conceptual model is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Source: Authors own.

Method

Participants and Procedure

Population of the study includes employees and their leaders working with start-ups in India. The judgemental sampling method is used in the study to collect data from 300 start-up leaders (promoters, founders and senior managers) and their 300 followers working in the start-up ventures. The selected sample size is representative of the target population. We have defined a start-up as a temporary organisation in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model (Blank & Dorf, 2012). A small start-up founded by two or three entrepreneurs with a handful of employees that can produce and test the feasibility of tens of possibilities for a new business idea, producing a viable product in a matter of a few months, comes under the purview of our study. Such start-up firms are generally newly created and in a phase of development and research for markets. The criteria that we have used for selecting a start-up are as follows:

Till up to five years from the date of incorporation.

Its turnover does not exceed 25 crores in the last five financial years.

It is working towards innovation, development, deployment and commercialisation of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property.

Is performing its operations in co-working spaces, start-up incubators and accelerators list from Inc42.com and start-upindia.gov.in.

Criteria for the selection of leaders of start-ups are as follows:

The leader must be a promoter or founder or senior manager heading a department or a division of the start-up.

Sample Description

Profile of Leaders, Employees and Start-ups

The sample consisted of 300 leaders and 300 employees (followers) working in Indian start-ups. Their profile is shown in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1.

Profile of Leaders

	Frequency	Percentage
Male	258	86
Female	42	14
Age, years
20–25	88	29.3
26–35	190	63.3
36–45	21	7
46 and above	1	0.3
Graduate (others)	42	14
Graduate (engineering)	105	35
Postgraduate (MBA)	106	35.3
Postgraduate (others)	47	15.7
Total work experience
Less than 5 years	144	48
6–10 years	101	33.7
11–15 years	42	14
16 years and above	13	4.3

Source: Authors own.

Table 2.

Profile of Employees

	Frequency	Percentage
Male	217	72.3
Female	83	27.7
Age, years
20–25	159	53
26–30	132	44
31–35	7	2.3
36 and above	2	0.7
Graduate (others)	88	29.3
Graduate (engineering)	110	36.7
Postgraduate (MBA)	60	20
Postgraduate (others)	42	14
Total work experience
Less than 5 years	244	81.3
6–10 years	36	12
11–15 years	18	6
16 years and above	2	0.7

Source: Authors own.

The sample consisted of 112 start-ups operating in India. An exhaustive list of start-ups, their founder members and contact details was made, which consisted of ventures operating in co-working spaces in all major cities, start-up incubators and accelerators list as gathered from Inc42.com and start-upindia.gov.in. An invitation was sent to all the contact emails that were there in the list to participate in the survey. Many of the founder members were also contacted on a personal basis and were invited for the same. In total, we received acceptance from 101 start-ups, of which data were collected from 94 start-ups. The sector-wise break-up of the start-ups is given in Table 3.

Table 3.

Profile of Start-ups (Sector-wise Break-up)

Type	No.	Type	No.	Type	No.
Lifestyle	9	Food	5	Fashion	4
Tech start-up	8	Ecommerce	4	Beauty and wellness	4
Marketing	8	Media and entertainment	4	Advertising	3

Source: Authors own.

Measures of Main Constructs

AL: AL Questionnaire (ALQ) by Walumbwa and colleagues has been used to measure subordinates’ perceptions of the leader with a 16-item questionnaire. Subordinate’s rating of their leaders indicates a better and clearer perspective on leader’s authenticity (Douglas et al., 2005) as the trait of authenticity is something that is more accurate when recognised and rated by others (Goffee & Jones, 2005; Harvey et al., 2006).

WE: WE has been measured with the nine-item version of the Utrecht WE Scale (UWES; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2010). The UWES reflects three subscales—vigour, dedication and absorption—each measured with three items. The three dimensions of engagement were totalled to create an overall scale of WE. High scores on all three dimensions indicate higher degree of employee WE. This instrument was filled by the employees of the start-ups.

ETP: ETP is related to how often employees are active in initiating change, with the statements such as how often they initiated better ways of doing the core tasks. ETP asked the leaders to rate their employees on statements related to completing their core tasks. Responses ranged from 1 (very little) to 7 (a great deal). Griffin et al. (2007) showed these items were structurally different from each other as well as predictors. The original reliability of the scale when developed was 0.86. This instrument was filled by the leaders.

Employee Creativity: The scale to measure employee creativity has been adapted to suit in the settings of the Indian start-up cultural context. Organisational creativity researchers usually adopt the established conceptual definition that states that a creative idea must be both novel and useful (Amabile, 1988; Ford, 1996; George & Zhou, 2007). However, since most of the creativity scales have been developed in Western countries, it may happen that cultural settings may play a significant role in validation of the scale in the Indian context. Also, the researcher did not find any scale that measures ‘employee creativity’ developed in the Indian context specifically for start-ups, clearly emphasising on the need of this study. Moreover, since the research study focuses mainly on Indian start-ups that are led by millennial leaders, it is important to know what actually creativity is as per their understanding. For the adaptation of scale, two widely used scales of creativity have been considered—creativity scale by Tierney et al. (1999) with nine items (Im & Workman, 2004) and creativity scale by Zhou and George (2001) with 13 items (Suh et al., 2010). After seeking expert opinion for content validation, 19 items were retained. Next, data were collected from 83 respondents leading start-ups. In order to examine the factor structure of the items, SPSS principal components analysis with Varimax rotation was used. Kaiser criteria advise that only factors with eigenvalue greater than one should be retained. The analysis yielded four factors with eigenvalue more than 1.0 constituting 66.3 per cent of the variance. The four factors of creativity that emerged were named as newness, originality, interpretive and resourcefulness. This instrument was also filled by the leaders of the start-ups.

The Cronbach alpha of all the instruments is shown in Table 4.

Table 4.

Tools Used and Their Cronbach Alpha

Variable	Questionnaire	No. of Items	Cronbach Alpha
Authentic leadership	Authentic leadership questionnaire (ALQ) by Walumbwa et al. (2008)	16	0.93
Work engagement	Utrecht work engagement scale (Schaufeli et al., 2006)	9	0.94
Employee task proactivity	Individual task proactivity (Griffin et al., 2007)	3	0.93
Creativity	Adapted version of creativity scales by Zhou and George (2001) and Tierney et al. (1999)	17	0.91

Source: Authors own.

Results

The study focuses on examining the effect of AL on creativity given the mediating effects of employee WE and ETP. Mediation effect of WE and ETP on the relationship between AL and employee creativity was tested using structural equation modelling following the Baron and Kenny approach (Baron & Kenny, 1986).

H₁: Mediation effect of WE on the relationship between AL and employee creativity

To assess the significance of the WE as mediator on the relationship between AL and employee creativity, bootstrapping procedures in AMOS were conducted. Five thousand samples were requested for bootstrapping. The measurement model showed good model fit indices (CMIN/df = 1.929; SRMR = 0.046; CFI = 0.928 and RMSEA = 0.056). Model fit indices of the structural model (CMIN/df = 1.963; SRMR = 0.057; CFI = 0.921 and RMSEA = 0.057) too are within the recommended range, as shown in Figure 2. The results of the bootstrap mediation test of employee WE between AL and employee creativity indicate that the P value of the total effect is less than the 5 per cent level of significance. This indicates the significant effect of AL on employee creativity. In addition to this the indirect effect as well as direct effect of AL on employee creativity is found to be less than the 5 per cent level of significance. The total effect (LB = 0.457 and UB = 0.646) here of the AL is found to be 0.555. The direct effect is observed to be 0.416 (LB = 0.315 and UB = 0.510) and the indirect effect is found to be 0.139 (LB = 0.089 and UB = 0.198). As empirical 95 per cent confidence intervals did not have zero, indicating that all the effects are statistically significant. Since the indirect effect is found to be significant at the 95 per cent confidence level, the partial mediation of the employee WE can be concluded. The details of the analysis thus confirmed that the WE acted as a mediator between AL and employee creativity.

H₂: Mediation effect of ETP on the relationship between AL and employee creativity

The same approach bootstrapping procedure in AMOS was followed for 5,000 samples that were requested for the same. The measurement model showed good model fit indices (CMIN/df = 1.937; SRMR = 0.048; CFI = 0.933 and RMSEA = 0.056). Model fit indices of the structural model (CMIN/df = 2.001; SRMR = 0.058; CFI = 0.925 and RMSEA = 0.058) are also within the recommended range, as shown in Figure 3. The results of the bootstrap mediation test of ETP between the AL and employee creativity indicate that the P value of the total effect is less than the 5 per cent level of significance. This indicates the significant influence of AL on employee creativity. The indirect effect as well as direct effect of AL on employee creativity is found to be less than 5 per cent level of significance. The total effect (LB = 0.453 and UB = 0.645) here of the AL is found to be 0.555. This total effect is further split into two parts: direct effect and indirect effect. The direct effect is found to be 0.419 (LB = 0.325 and UB = 0.506), and the indirect effect is found to be 0.135 (LB = 0.074 and UB = 0.197). As empirical 95 per cent confidence intervals did not have zero, indicating that all the effects were statistically significant. Since the indirect effect is seen as significant at the 95 per cent confidence level, the partial mediation of the ETP can be concluded. The results of the analysis thus confirmed that ETP acted as a mediator between AL and employee creativity.

Figure 2.

Source: Authors own.

Discussion

The study aimed to find how employees perceive AL in their leaders and how it helps in boosting their engagement at work, further contributing to creativity. In the study, the direct as well as the indirect effect of the AL is studied on the employee creativity. In case of the indirect effect, WE and ETP are taken as mediating variables between AL and employee creativity. The bootstrap method is used to examine the role of AL on employee creativity and the mediating role of employee WE and ETP between them.

It is found that a significant impact of AL exists on employee creativity. Additionally, the indirect effect as well as direct effect of AL on employee creativity is found to be significant. The total effect of the AL is 0.555. This total effect is further divided into two components: direct effect and indirect effect. With WE as a mediating variable, the direct effect is found to be 0.416, and the indirect effect is found to be 0.139; hence, partial mediation of the WE can be concluded. With ETP as a mediating variable, the direct effect is found to be 0.419, and the indirect effect is found to be 0.135; hence, partial mediation of the ETP can be concluded. Therefore, AL not only has a significant impact on the employee creativity (direct effect) but also has an indirect effect on employee creativity in the Indian start-ups. It can be concluded that employees feel that leaders’ AL behaviour helps them to be more engaged in their work, which further increases their ability to come up with novel and creative ideas during work. When employees view their leaders as authentic, they are likely to be more engaged, further leading to the creation of new and useful ideas. Likewise, when employees perceive their leaders as authentic, they are motivated to exhibit proactive work behaviour, as a result of which they find themselves coming up with creative solutions.

Figure 3.

Source: Authors own.

Implications and Conclusion

Our study advances previous research by empirically examining AL as an important antecedent to creativity in the context of start-ups via engagement and proactivity of employees in a comprehensive model in the following aspects. First, we develop a multilevel theoretical model that examines the cross-level effects of AL on creativity along with the mediating effect of WE. The findings of this study provide further support to the conceptualisation of creativity as a context-based phenomenon in a start-up which is influenced by multilevel effects of their antecedents, such as authenticity in the leadership of the founders, leaders or managers (Crossan & Apaydin, 2010) and the employees’ levels of WE. This study reasserts the findings in previous studies, which establishes the relationship between AL and WE (Kumar & Israel, 2012; Oh et al., 2018) and between WE and employee creativity (Bakker et al., 2020). The components of AL that are self-awareness, balanced processing, relational transparency and internalised moral perspective, are positively related to factors, namely, vigour, dedication and absorption, which ultimately lead to creativity. When employees feel their leaders to be authentic in leadership, they are likely to be more engaged in their work, which further increases their ability to come up with novel and creative ideas during work.

Second, we also examine the effect of AL on creativity through the mediating role of ETP. A recent study reaffirms that proactive personality has positive effects on the meaning of work and employee creativity (Akgunduz et al., 2018; Joo & Bennett, 2018). In a start-up, where there is a relatively flatter organisational structure, the followers expect their leaders to be relationally transparent and more empowering when they allow followers to put their ideas on the table. When employees perceive their leaders exhibiting authentic behaviour, and being unbiased and supportive of ideas, they are more inclined to suggest ways of doing things differently and are motivated to display proactive behaviour in work that further stimulates their creative energy, thereby giving rise to new ideas. The study reasserts previous findings that suggest that proactive behaviour holds a crucial place in determining creative potential of the leader (Hu et al., 2018; Salanova & Schaufeli, 2008).

The study provides practical implications for the start-up industry. AL plays a major role in motivating people, thus keeping them engaged, proactive and thus leading to increase in their creativity levels. This would certainly establish AL development as a compelling organisational intervention that could benefit firms by providing competitive advantage by enhancing the level of WE in the employees. Focussing on AL behaviours could lead to increase in levels of WE, ETP and creativity in start-ups. This would prompt organisations to identify ways in which they can promote engagement and task proactivity that would further foster creativity of the employees. Another important implication would be that selecting leaders with AL behaviours would lead to positive outcomes vis-à-vis WE, employee creativity and ETP. Also, designing and implementing training/development actions that focus on developing an understanding of AL has a positive impact on employee performance, thus making an important contribution to a firm’s overall performance. Since it has been found in the study that AL does make a positive influence on engagement, ETP and creativity, this would further enable organisations to develop effective strategies to positively influence follower behaviour for effective organisational outcomes.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Santoshi Sengupta

Swati Sharma

References

Akgunduz

Alkan

Gök

Ö. A.

(2018). Perceived organizational support, employee creativity and proactive personality: The mediating effect of meaning of work. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management , 34, 105–114.

Alenina

K. A.

Bengoa

D. S.

Vlasova

(2016). Russian high-tech pharmaceutical enterprises: Reasons and factors for sustainable innovation. Journal for Global Business Advancement , 9(2), 146–166.

Amabile

T. M.

(1988). A model of creativity and innovation in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior , 10(1), 123–167.

Aragón-Correa

J. A.

(1998). Strategic proactivity and firm approach to the natural environment. Academy of Management Journal , 41(5), 556–567.

Asif

Qing

Hwang

Shi

(2019). Ethical leadership, affective commitment, work engagement, and creativity: Testing a multiple mediation approach. Sustainability , 11(16), 4489.

Avolio

B. J.

Gardner

W. L.

(2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly , 16(3), 315–338.

Avolio

B. J.

Gardner

W. L.

Walumbwa

F. O.

Luthans

May

D. R.

(2004). Unlocking the mask: A look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly , 15(6), 801–823.

Bakker

A. B.

Albrecht

(2018). Work engagement: current trends. Career Development International , 23(1), 4–11.

Bakker

A. B.

Demerouti

(2008). Towards a model of work engagement. Career Development International , 13(3), 209–223.

10.

Bakker

A. B.

Petrou

Op den Kamp

E. M.

Tims

(2020). Proactive vitality management, work engagement, and creativity: The role of goal orientation. Applied Psychology , 69(2), 351–378.

11.

Bandura

(1999). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Asian Journal of Social Psychology , 52(1), 1–26.

12.

Baron

R. M.

Kenny

D. A.

(1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research, conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 51(6), 1173–1182.

13.

Bateman

T. S.

Crant

J. M.

(1993). The proactive component of organizational behavior: A measure and correlates. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 14(2), 103–118.

14.

Blank

Dorf

(2012). The startup owner’s manual: The step-by-step guide for building a great company . K & S Ranch Inc.

15.

Campbell

D. J.

(2000). The proactive employee: Managing workplace initiative. Academy of Management Executive , 14(3), 52–66.

16.

Černe

Jaklič

Škerlavaj

(2013). Authentic leadership, creativity, and innovation: A multilevel perspective. Leadership , 9(1), 63–85.

17.

Chammas

C. B.

da Costa Hernandez

J. M.

(2019). Comparing transformational and instrumental leadership: The influence of different leadership styles on individual employee and financial performance in Brazilian start-ups. Innovation & Management Review , 16(2), 143–160.

18.

Chan

A. Y. L. H.

Hannah

S. T.

Gardner

W. L.

(2005). Veritable authentic leadership: Emergence, functioning, and impacts. Authentic Leadership Theory and Practice: Origins, Effects and Development , 3, 3–41.

19.

Cogliser

C. C.

Brigham

K. H.

(2004). The intersection of leadership and entrepreneurship: Mutual lessons to be learned. The Leadership Quarterly , 15(6), 771–799.

20.

Colombo

M. G.

Piva

(2008). Strengths and weaknesses of academic start-ups: A conceptual model. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management , 55(1), 37–49.

21.

Crant

J. M.

(2000). Proactive behavior in organizations. Journal of Management , 26(3), 435–462.

22.

Crossan

M. M.

Apaydin

(2010). A multi-dimensional framework of organizational innovation: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Management Studies , 47(6), 1154–1191.

23.

Demerouti

Cropanzano

(2010). From thought to action: Employee work engagement and job performance. Bakker

& Leiter

(Eds.), Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research . Psychology Press. https//doi.org/10.4324/9780203853047

24.

Dinesh

K. K.

Sushil . (2019). Strategic innovation factors in startups: Results of a cross-case analysis of Indian startups. Journal for Global Business Advancement , 12(3), 449–470.

25.

Dirks

K. T.

Ferrin

D. L.

(2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology , 87(4), 611.

26.

Douglas

Ferris

G. R.

Perrewe

P. L.

(2005). Leader political skill and authentic leadership. Authentic Leadership, Origins, Development, and Effects , 3, 139–154.

27.

Eggers

Lovelace

K. J.

Kraft

(2017). Fostering creativity through critical thinking: The case of business start-up simulations. Creativity and Innovation Management , 26(3), 266–276.

28.

Feng

Zhang

Liu

Zhang

Han

(2018). Just the right amount of ethics inspires creativity: A cross-level investigation of ethical leadership, intrinsic motivation, and employee creativity. Journal of Business Ethics , 153(3), 645–658.

29.

Ford

Cameron M.

(1996). A theory of individual creative action in multiple social domains. Academy of Management review , 21(4), 1112–1142.

30.

Frese

Kring

Soose

Zempel

(1996). Personal initiative at work: Differences between East and West Germany. Academy of Management Journal , 39(1), 37–63.

31.

Gardner

W. L.

Avolio

B. J.

Luthans

May

D. R.

Walumbwa

(2005). Can you see the real me? A self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. Leadership Quarterly , 16(3), 343–372.

32.

George

J. M.

Zhou

(2007). Dual tuning in a supportive context: Joint contributions of positive mood, negative mood, and supervisory behaviors to employee creativity. Academy of Management Journal , 50(3), 605–622.

33.

Giallonardo

L. M.

Wong

C. A.

Iwasiw

C. L.

(2010). Authentic leadership of preceptors: Predictor of new graduate nurses’ work engagement and job satisfaction. Journal of Nursing Management , 18(8), 993–1003.

34.

Gichohi

P. M.

(2014). The role of employee engagement in revitalizing creativity and innovation at the workplace: A survey of selected libraries in Meru County, Kenya. Library Philosophy and Practice , 2014(1).

35.

Goffee

Jones

(2005). Managing authenticity. Harvard Business Review , 83(12), 85–94.

36.

Gong

Cheung

S. Y.

Wang

Huang

J. C.

(2012). Unfolding the proactive process for creativity: Integration of the employee proactivity, information exchange, and psychological safety perspectives. Journal of Management , 38(5), 1611–1633.

37.

Griffin

M. A.

Neal

Parker

S. K.

(2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent contexts. Academy of Management Journal , 50(2), 327–347.

38.

Harvey

Martinko

M. J.

Gardner

W. L.

(2006). Promoting authentic behavior in organizations: An attributional perspective. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies , 12(3), 1–11.

39.

Hassan

Ahmed

(2011). Authentic leadership, trust and work engagement. International Journal of Human and Social Sciences , 6(3), 164–170.

40.

Hsu

(2008). Technology-based entrepreneurship. In Shane

(Ed.), Handbook of Technology and Innovation Management . John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

41.

Zong

Xiao

Maguire

Wei

Wang

(2018). Authentic leadership and proactive behavior: The role of psychological capital and compassion at work. Frontiers in Psychology , 9, 2470.

42.

Ilgen

D. R.

Pulakos

E. D.

(2000). The changing nature of performance: Implications for staffing, motivation, and development. Wiley.

43.

Ilies

Morgeson

F. P.

Nahrgang

J. D.

(2005). Authentic leadership and eudaemonic well-being: Understanding leader–follower outcomes. Leadership Quarterly , 16(3), 373–394.

44.

Workman

J. P.

(2004). Market orientation, creativity, and new product performance in high-technology firms. Journal of Marketing , 68(2), 114–132.

45.

Jensen

S. M.

Luthans

(2006a). Entrepreneurs as authentic leaders: Impact on employees’ attitudes. Leadership and Organization Development Journal , 27(8), 646–666.

46.

Jensen

S. M.

Luthans

(2006b). Relationship between entrepreneurs’ psychological capital and their authentic leadership. Journal of Managerial Issues , 18(2), 254–273.

47.

Joo

B. K. B.

Bennett III

R. H.

(2018). The influence of proactivity on creative behavior, organizational commitment, and job performance: Evidence from a Korean multinational. Journal of International & Interdisciplinary Business Research , 5(1), 1–20.

48.

Joshi

Achutan

(2018). Leadership in Indian high-tech start-ups: Lessons for future. The Future of Leadership, Addressing Complex Global Issues , 39–91.

49.

Kohnen

(2003). Authentic leadership: Rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value . John Wiley and Sons. https//doi.org/10.1080/10686967.2005.11919272.

50.

Kumar

Israel

(2012). Authentic leadership and work engagement. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations , 498–510.

51.

Kuratko

D. F.

(2007). Entrepreneurial leadership in the 21st century. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies , 13(4), 1–11.

52.

Liu

Fuller

Hester

Bennett

R. J.

Dickerson

M. S.

(2018). Linking authentic leadership to subordinate behaviors. Leadership and Organization Development Journal , 39(2), 218–233.

53.

Ljudvigová

Slávik

P. Š

. (2017). Research of vertical and team leadership in Slovak start-ups. University of Economics in Bratislava Department of Management Bratislava, Slovak Republic. E-Leader International Journal , 1–12.

54.

Lorenzen

(2009). Creativity in context, content, cost, chance, and collection in the organization of the film industry. In Pratt

A. C.

Jeffcutt

(Eds.), Creativity and innovation in the cultural economy (pp. 93–118). Routledge.

55.

Malik

Dhar

R. L.

Handa

S. C.

(2016). Authentic leadership and its impact on creativity of nursing staff: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of Indian nurses and their supervisors. International Journal of Nursing Studies , 63, 28–36.

56.

Men

L. R.

Chen

Z. F.

Y. G.

(2018). Walking the talk: An exploratory examination of executive leadership communication at start-ups in China. Journal of Public Relations Research , 30(1–2), 35–56.

57.

Meng

Cheng

Z.-C.

Guo

T.-C.

(2017). Positive team atmosphere mediates the impact of authentic leadership on subordinate creativity. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal , 44(3), 355–368.

58.

Morrison

E. W.

Phelps

C. C.

(1999). Taking charge at work: Extrarole efforts to initiate workplace change. Academy of Management Journal , 42(4), 403–419.

59.

Musa

Soetjipto

B. W.

Gardner

W. L.

Rachmawati

(2017). Authentic leadership, strategic orientation, strategy execution and firm performance. Academy of Management Proceedings , 2017(1), 13330.

60.

Mustar

Wright

Clarysse

(2008). University spin-off firms: Lessons from ten years of experience in Europe. Science and Public Policy , 35(2), 67–80.

61.

Nayak

Agarwal

Amabile

T. M.

(2011). Model of creativity and innovation in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior , 10(1), 123–167.

62.

Nieves

Quintana

Osorio

(2014). Knowledge-based resources and innovation in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management , 38, 65–73.

63.

Cho

Lim

D. H.

(2018). Authentic leadership and work engagement: The mediating effect of practicing core values. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 39(2), 276–290. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-02-2016-0030

64.

Parker

S. K.

(2000). From passive to proactive motivation: The importance of flexible role orientations and role breadth self-efficacy. Applied Psychology , 49(3), 447–469.

65.

Parker

S. K.

Collins

C. G.

(2010). Taking stock: Integrating and differentiating multiple proactive behaviors. Journal of Management , 36(3), 633–662.

66.

Peterson

R. S.

Kim

(2012). Leadership in small groups and teams: Toward a theory of group leadership. In Neale

M. A.

Mannix

E. A.

(Eds.), Looking back, moving forward: A review of group and team-based research (pp. 27–47). Emerald Publishing Limited.

67.

Pomerol

J. C.

(2018). Business uncertainty, corporate decision and start-ups. Journal of Decision Systems , 27(1), 32–37.

68.

Rank

Pace

V. L.

Frese

(2004). Three avenues for future research on creativity, innovation, and initiative. Applied Psychology , 53(4), 518–528.

69.

Rego

Sousa

Marques

Cunha

M. P. e

. (2012). Authentic leadership promoting employees’ psychological capital and creativity. Journal of Business Research , 65(3), 429–437.

70.

Ren

Zhou

Liu

(2020). Can CEO’s humble leadership behavior really improve enterprise performance and sustainability? A case study of Chinese Start-Up companies. Sustainability , 12(8), 3168.

71.

Ribeiro

Duarte

A. P.

Filipe

Torres de Oliveira

(2019). How authentic leadership promotes individual creativity: The mediating role of affective commitment. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies , 27(2), 189–202. https//doi.org/10.1177/1548051819842796

72.

Richter

Jackson

Schildhauer

(2018). Entrepreneurial behaviour and start-ups: The case of Germany and the USA. Entrepreneurial Innovation and Leadership, Preparing for a Digital Future , 1–14.

73.

Salanova

Schaufeli

W. B.

(2008). A cross-national study of work engagement as a mediator between job resources and proactive behaviour. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 19(1), 116–131.

74.

Schaufeli

W. B.

Bakker

A. B.

(2010). Defining and measuring work engagement: Bringing clarity to the concept. In Bakker

A. B.

Leiter

M. P.

(Eds.), Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research (vol. 12, pp. 10–24). Psychology Press.

75.

Semedo

A. S. D.

Coelho

A. F. M.

Ribeiro

N. M. P.

(2016). Effects of authentic leadership, affective commitment and job resourcefulness on employees’ creativity and individual performance. Leadership and Organization Development Journal , 37(8), 1038–1055.

76.

Semedo

A. S. D.

Coelho

A. F. M.

Ribeiro

N. M. P.

(2017). Authentic leadership and creativity, the mediating role of happiness. International Journal of Organizational Analysis , 25(3), 395–412.

77.

Shalley

C. E.

Gilson

L. L.

Blum

T. C.

(2000). Matching creativity requirements and the work environment: Effects on satisfaction and intentions to leave. Academy of Management Journal , 43(2), 215–223.

78.

Shalley

C. E.

Zhou

Oldham

G. R.

(2004). The effects of personal and contextual characteristics on creativity: Where should we go from here. Journal of Management , 30(6), 933–958.

79.

Shane

Venkataraman

(2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review , 25(1), 217–226.

80.

Singh

Sengupta

Sharma

(2018). Towards a better understanding of the relationship between authentic leadership and its positive outcomes: A theoretical framework. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management , 15(2), 1–20.

81.

Singh

S. K.

Burgess

T. F.

Heap

Zaabi

M. S. A. S. A.

Ahmad

K. Z.

Hossan

(2016). Authentic leadership, work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors in petroleum company. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management , 65(6), 811–830. https//doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-01-2016-0023

82.

Suh

Hong

Pirolli

Chi

E. H.

(2010). Want to be retweeted? Large scale analytics on factors impacting retweet in twitter network. Proceedings SocialCom 2010, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, PASSAT 2010, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust , pp. 177–184.

83.

Sundaray

B. K.

(2011). Employee engagement: A driver of organizational effectiveness. European Journal of Business and Management , 3(8), 53–59.

84.

Tierney

Farmer

S. M.

Graen

G. B.

(1999). An examination of leadership and employee creativity: The relevance of traits and relationships. Personnel Psychology , 52(3), 591–620.

85.

Tims

Bakker

A. B.

Xanthopoulou

(2011). Do transformational leaders enhance their followers’ daily work engagement. The Leadership Quarterly , 22(1), 121–131.

86.

Toyama

Mauno

(2017). Associations of trait emotional intelligence with social support, work engagement, and creativity in Japanese eldercare nurses. Japanese Psychological Research , 59(1), 14–25.

87.

Wallin

Still

Henttonen

(2018). Entrepreneurial Growth Ambitions: The case of Finnish technology start-ups. Technology Innovation Management Review , 6(10), 5–16.

88.

Walumbwa

F. O.

Avolio

B. J.

Gardner

W. L.

Wernsing

T. S.

Peterson

S. J.

(2008). Authentic leadership, development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management , 34(1), 89–126.

89.

Walumbwa

F. O.

Peterson

S. J.

Avolio

B. J.

Hartnell

C. A.

(2010). An investigation of the relationships among leader and follower psychological capital, service climate, and job performance. Personnel Psychology , 63(4), 937–963.

90.

Wong

C. A.

Cummings

G. G.

(2009). The influence of authentic leadership behaviors on trust and work outcomes of health care staff. Journal of Leadership Studies , 3(2), 6–23.

91.

Wong

C. A.

Spence Laschinger

H. K.

Cummings

G. G.

(2010). Authentic leadership and nurses’ voice behaviour and perceptions of care quality. Journal of nursing management , 18(8), 889–900.

92.

Xanthopoulou

Bakker

A. B.

Demerouti

Schaufeli

W. B.

(2008). Reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior , 74(3), 235–244.

93.

B.-D

Zhao

S. K.

C. R.

Lin

C. J.

(2017). Authentic leadership and employee creativity, testing the multilevel mediation model. Leadership and Organization Development Journal , 38(3), 482–498.

94.

Yang

Guan

(2019). Entrepreneurial leadership and turnover intention in start-ups: Mediating roles of employees’ job embeddedness, job satisfaction and affective commitment. Sustainability (Switzerland) , 11(4), 1101.

95.

Zaech

Baldegger

(2017). Leadership in start-ups. International Small Business Journal , 35(2), 157–177.

96.

Zubair

Kamal

(2015). Authentic leadership and creativity: Mediating role of work- related flow and psychological capital. Journal of Behavioural Sciences , 25(1), 150.

97.

Schaufeli

W. B.

Bakker

A. B.

Salanova

(2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement , 66(4), 701–716.

98.

George

Sims

McLean

A. N.

Mayer

(2007). Discovering your authentic leadership. Harvard Business Review , 85(2), 129.

99.

Rego

Sousa

Marques

Cunha

M. P. e

. (2014). Hope and positive affect mediating the authentic leadership and creativity relationship. Journal of Business Research , 67(2), 200–210.

100.

Zhou

George

J. M.

(2001). When job dissatisfaction leads to creativity: Encouraging the expression of voice. Academy of Management Journal , 44(4), 682–696.