Participative leadership effects on followers' radical creativity: role of creative process engagement and supervisor support for creativity

Purpose Drawn on self-determination (SDT) and social cognitive theory (SCT), this study examines how participative leadership (PL) influences the creative process engagement of followers (CPE) on fostering followers' radical creativity (FRC) through the supervisor support for creativity (SSC). It also demonstrates the CPE as a cognitive mediator between PL and FRC and SSC as a behavioral moderator between PL and CPE in Asia's manufacturing settings. Design/methodology/approach The research is quantitative, and data are gathered using a questionnaire and a survey of Bangladesh's 252 textile and apparel industry respondents. SPSS 26 and SMART PLS 3.8 evaluated the measurement and structural models and other descriptive analyses for hypothesis testing and result confirmation. Findings The findings revealed that PL positively impacted followers' creative process engagement. Again, the CPE of followers was used to mediate PL and FRC to promote and determine radical creativity. Moreover, the research also found a substantial correlation between PL and the creative process involved in supervisor support for creativity, which increases followers' radical creativity. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the current literature by extending the scope of PL, CPE, FRC, SDT and SCT theory incorporating supervisor support. Practical implications The findings showed that textile and apparel industry managers, leaders and practitioners could use participatory leadership to engage in collaborative leader-follower creativity goal setting, creativity-relevant thinking and talent flourishing to encourage and motivate creativity through supervisor support to followers to foster radical creativity. Originality/value The results demonstrate the colloquial expression in behavioral mechanism (creative process engagement) nurtured with the cognitive tool, shedding insight into the link between PL and radical creativity in followers (SSC for promoting radical creativity).