Having two conflicting minds? Examining the link among leaders’ cognitive thinking style, employee creative self-efficacy and employee creative performance# 5 Yuntao Bai 1 , Guohong Helen Han 2*
(1. School of Management, Xiamen University; 2. Williamson College of Business Administration, Youngstown State University)
Foundations: Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education(201**********) Brief author introduction:Yuntao Bai(1980-), male, associate professor, leadership and creativity. E-mail: Abstract: In this study, we integrate a cognitive style variable specific —leader dialectical thinking,with an aim to explore its effects on employee creativity. Different culture shape the way 10 people think in different ways. Research has shown that Chinese are more likely to have a different thinking style--dialectical thinking, which refers to the cognitive tendency to tolerate contradiction, expect change, and think holistically. Unlike Western minds, East Asians are more osee extremes or opposites as being perpetually in a state of flux and transforming into its opposite. This study utilizes ambivalence response amplification theory to explore the moderating role of employees’ creative 15 self-efficacy. The study examines whether an individual’s high creative self-efficacy will be considered by his/her leaders as having the highest level of creativity. This study will have research and practical implications in the workplace. Key words: Leadership; Dialectical Thinking; Creative Self-efficacy; Employee Creativity 20 0 Introduction In his very recently published book entitled “Dialectical thinking for integral leaders: a Primer”, Laske argued that human thinking is essentially dialectical [1] . He explained Western minds forted by the notion that green is green and red is red all the time. Actually, “green” consists of vari