Impact of differential leadership on innovative behavior of employees: A double-edged sword

We investigated if differential leadership predicts the innovative behavior of employees, and examined the mediating roles of work engagement and ego depletion in this relationship. Using a three-wave research design we collected leader–member dyad data from 198 leaders and 485 employees at nine Chinese companies. Results show that differential leadership had opposite effects, that is, it positively predicted the innovative behavior of employees through the mediator of work engagement, and it negatively predicted the innovative behavior of employees through the mediator of ego depletion. These findings contribute to understanding of the relationship between differential leadership and employees’ innovative behavior, and provide a new theoretical perspective on differential leadership.