The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Leaders’ Fear of Missing Out on Leaders’ Creativity: An Experience Sampling Method Study

Abstract

Purpose

Fear of Missing out (FoMO) is a widely observed phenomenon in the workplace. Previous research has primarily focused on employees’ FoMO, with limited exploration of leaders’ FoMO and its impact on their creativity. This study aims to investigate how leaders’ FoMO affects their creativity, based on the transactional stress theory.

Patients and Methods

Using an experience sampling method, we collected 836 observations from 102 leaders across various industries in China for two consecutive weeks (10 working days). Subsequently, hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modeling were employed to test the hypotheses.

Results

This study suggests that both challenge stress and hindrance stress mediate the relationship between leaders’ FoMO and their creativity. Role breadth self-efficacy moderates the relationship between leaders’ FoMO and challenge stress and hindrance stress, and moderates the positive and negative mediating effects of challenge stress and hindrance stress in the relationship between leaders’ FoMO and their creativity.

Conclusion

Research has shown that leaders’ FoMO can either enhance creative performance by increasing challenge stress or inhibit it by increasing hindrance stress. Role breadth self-efficacy significantly amplifies the positive relationship between leaders’ FoMO and challenge stress, while moderating the negative effect of leaders’ FoMO on hindrance stress.

Innovations

Firstly, this study expands workplace FoMO research by illustrating the double-edged sword effect of leaders’ FoMO on their creativity. Secondly, this study contributes to the academic community’s comprehension of the underlying mechanisms linking leaders’ FoMO and its outcomes by demonstrating the mediating role of challenge stress and hindrance stress. Thirdly, the study shows the boundary conditions for the effects of leaders’ FoMO by validating the moderating role of their role breadth self-efficacy.

Keywords:

• workplace fear of missing out
• challenge stress
• hindrance stress
• leader’s creativity
• role breadth self-efficacy

Data Sharing Statement

The data provided are available at the request from the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

This study was reviewed and approved by the Shihezi University of Economics and Management Ethics Committee. We declare that participants in our research study allow us to use their data for academic research and publication. All the participants were anonymous and their data was protected. All participants provided informed consent and this study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to extend their deepest appreciation to the individuals and groups who contributed to the research process. The authors acknowledge the support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72162029).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.