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Abstract:

This multi-method study examined the mediating effect of climate for creativity between leadership behavior and innovation at the work-unit (proximal) and organizational (distal) levels. The study was conducted with a sample of 180 engineers in the aerospace industry. Creative autonomy, idea-support, challenge and involvement, and conflict were identified as underlying constructs for the climate for creativity. The analysis revealed that climate for creativity complementarily mediates the relationship between leadership support for innovation and innovation, with idea-support as the most influential dimension. A distinction between work-unit innovation and organizational-level innovation showed that the conflict dimension was influential only at the more proximal work-unit innovation level. Qualitative analysis confirmed these dimensions and identified the underlying constructs for leadership behavior in relation to climate for creativity, for both helping and hindering innovation.