The Understanding of the Relationship between Autonomy Orientation and Creativity: The Moderating Effect of Authoritarian Leadership

The present study investigated the separate and joint effects of authoritarian leadership and the individual subordinate´s autonomy orientation on his or her creativity. Based on self-determination theory and previous researches, we propose that the individual subordinate´s autonomy orientation is positively related to his or her creativity, while authoritarian leadership negatively related to the subordinate´s creativity. Then we discussed the moderating effect of authoritarian leadership on the relationship between one´s autonomy orientation and his or her creativity, such that the positive effect of autonomy orientation on creativity is weakened when authoritarian leadership is high.