The influence of transactional or transformational leadership on individual creativity of high school teachers.

Abstract

A lot of research has been done about the effects of leadership, also on the creativity of their followers. But little is known about these effects in high schools. This survey inquired if there is an effect of the perception of being led in a particular way on individual creativity of Dutch high school teachers. The perception of being led in a particular way, as well as the individual creativity was measured using a questionnaire. According to this questionnaire, leadership was defined as transactional or transformational. Creativity was seen as the ability to see different opportunities and solutions. Job autonomy and cognitive team diversity were included in the analyses, to avoid a possible moderating effect. Using data from 121 teachers, both the transactional and transformational type of leadership had a significant positive effect on individual creativity; this correlation is stronger for transformational leadership (respectively r = .311 and r = .243). Job autonomy had a significant moderating effect in the correlation between transformational leadership and individual creativity. No significant moderating effect was found of cognitive team diversity. In conclusion, this study showed that both the leadership styles substantially affect creativity of Dutch high school teachers. Taken this into account, a transformational leader may improve a more creative atmosphere looking at the stronger correlation.