Managers’ Confucian leadership and employee creative performance: Mediation through supervisor–subordinate guanxi

Although prior research has acknowledged that leadership affects employee creative performance, few studies have examined the influence of managers’ Confucian leadership on employee creative performance. We explored the relationship of managers’ Confucian leadership and employee creative performance, and conceptualized supervisor–subordinate guanxi as a mediator for understanding this link. We conducted a survey with 496 supervisor–subordinate dyads employed in 25 high-tech companies across China. The results of structural equation modeling showed that managers’ Confucian leadership was positively connected with employee creative performance, and that supervisor–subordinate guanxi mediated this relationship. Our study sheds light on the complex process by which managers’ Confucian leadership affects employee creative performance and suggests that managers should receive training on Confucian leadership and build good supervisor–subordinate guanxi to enhance employee creative performance.