FOSTERING CREATIVE WORK ENGAGEMENT: THE ROLES OF KNOWLEDGE-ORIENTED LEADERSHIP AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Abstract

Leadership is one of the essential elements that fosters creative work engagements in
organisations. This study investigates the relationship between knowledge-oriented
leadership and creative work engagement, as well as the contextual role of knowledge
sharing in facilitating this relationship in Asaba, Delta State. The study used a structured
questionnaire to collect data from 191 clinical workers, conveniently sampled from a state-
owned hospital. The data collected was analysed using the partial least squares [PLS]
structural equation modelling method. The analysis revealed that knowledge-oriented
leadership has a significant and positive influence on creative work engagement, with
knowledge sharing acting as a partial mediating factor. The study concluded that knowledge-
oriented leaders can promote knowledge sharing to maximise their significant and positive
influence on employees’ engagement in creative activities. The study made several
recommendations to strengthen the connections and boost employees' engagement in creative
work. Among them is the need to curate leadership trainings to develop the ambidextrous
behaviours associated with knowledge-oriented leadership, with a focus on enhanced
communication and motivation. Furthermore, organisations should frequently develop in-
house leadership trainings and sponsor employees, partly or fully, to externally organised
training programmes.