How does paradoxical leadership affect innovation in teams: An integrated multilevel dual process model

BACKGROUND: Scholars have called for studies to adopt a more holistic perspective to conduct multilevel examinations of leadership processes, but corresponding empirical studies are rare. Besides, researches on the relationship of paradoxical leadership with team innovation and individual innovation are still in the exploratory stage. OBJECTIVE: Integrating paradoxical leadership theory, role system theory and role engagement theory, we developed a multilevel, dual process model to explore the mechanisms through which paradoxical leadership simultaneously affect individual innovation and team innovation. METHODS: Based on the multiphase, multisource data collected from 367 employees of 80 teams in Fujian and Jiangsu province in China, Structural equation model (SEM) and Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) were applied to analyze the survey data. RESULTS: Our empirical results revealed that, (1) At the individual level, role engagement positively contributes to individual innovation. (2) At the team level, paradoxical leadership exerted positive influence on team innovation, and team coordination mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and team innovation. (3) At the cross level, paradoxical leadership positively contributed to individual innovation, and the variables role engagement and team coordination play a cross-level mediation role in the relationship of paradoxical leadership and individual innovation. Furthermore, team coordination moderates the relationship between role engagement and individual innovation. CONCLUSIONS: By combining paradoxical leadership theory, role system theory and role engagement theory, we proposed a multilevel theoretical framework, taking a meaningful step for explaining the relationship and the influence mechanism between paradoxical leadership and team innovation and individual innovation. Our finding inspires leaders at all levels of the organization to leverage paradoxical leadership to engage the contradictions and competing demands pervade in the workplace and organizations effectively, and gain comfort from discomfort, and further achieve good innovation performance. We hope our research can offer a basis for management research and practice in this complex set.