The influence of crisis leadership on team innovative performance: a dual-pathway cognitive-affective perspective

Amid frequent crises and rising uncertainty, public organizations increasingly need effective leadership to stimulate team innovation. However, prior studies have focused mainly on how crisis leadership affects crisis response performance and employee behavior, with limited attention to team innovative performance. Drawing on COR theory, this study examines the relationship between crisis leadership and team innovative performance, and analyzes the parallel mediating roles of team cognitive flexibility and team positive affective climate. Using questionnaire data from 406 public sector employees, structural equation modeling shows that crisis leadership is significantly and positively related to team innovative performance. Team cognitive flexibility and team positive affective climate both play significant mediating roles, and the cognitive pathway has stronger explanatory power than the emotional pathway. This study reveals the cognitive-emotional dual-pathway mechanism through which crisis leadership influences team innovative performance. It expands research on crisis leadership and team innovation in the public sector, and provides practical implications for improving crisis leadership and team innovation capabilities in public organizations.