Trust in Supervisor and Employee Creativity: The Mediating Role of Information Sharing

Creativity is modern era productivity. Many efforts have been made to enhance employee creativity. This study adopted the social exchange model of creativity to understand in-depth the integrated effect of affective and cognitive trust in supervisor (ATS/CTS) on employee creativity. We recruited 528 subordinates who completed a three-wave survey at one-month intervals. Multilevel modeling results showed that ATS and CTS were positively related to employee creativity. Moreover, information sharing served as a mediator for the relationship between CTS and employee creativity, but not between ATS and employee creativity. In addition, the mediation effect of information sharing on ATS-employee creativity was significant for employees with high levels of CTS but not for those with low levels of CTS. Our results suggested an integrated effect of ATS and CTS in information sharing and its consequences on employee creativity. We have confirmed and extended the social exchange model by examining the integrated effect of ATS and CTS on employee creativity. CTS seems to be a threshold in the relationship between ATS and employee information sharing. Our findings clarify ways to develop human resource training to promote ATS and CTS to foster employee creativity.