Supervisory styles and graduate student creativity: the mediating roles of creative self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation

Abstract

Based on social cognitive theory and leadership theory, the current study tests a theoretical model linking supervisory styles (i.e. supportive and directive) with graduate student creativity via psychological cognitive factors (specifically, creative self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation). Results from a sample of 216 graduate students of 1 university in China indicate that both creative self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation completely mediate the influences of supportive supervisory style and directive supervisory style on graduate student creativity. Interestingly, the results indicate a positive influence of directive supervisory style on graduate student creativity, which is inconsistent with the literature and our own original hypothesis. Our findings verify that creative self-efficacy has an indirect effect on graduate student creativity by influencing intrinsic motivation. We discuss the implications of these findings for both theory and practice.

Keywords:

• supervisory styles
• creativity
• creative self-efficacy
• intrinsic motivation

Notes

1 We thank an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions about the explanation of the interesting findings (i.e. the positive relationship between directive supervisory style and graduate student creativity), which led to an improved version of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; 71371177), the Ministry of Education Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (MOEPHSS; 13YJA880020), and the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (APNSF; No. 1308085MG110). The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessary reflect the views of NSFC, MOEPHSS, and APNSF.