Unravelling the role of organizational commitment and work engagement in the relationship between self-leadership and employee creativity

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the serial mediating mechanism between self-leadership and employee creativity through organizational commitment and work engagement. Drawing on the self-determination theory and broaden and build theory, this study investigates the indirect effect of self-leadership on employee creativity through organizational commitment and work engagement.Design/methodology/approachThe relationships were investigated using PROCESS macro for SPSS. Data were collected from 324 employees working in the Indian automobile industry. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the model fit of the measurement model.FindingsThe results of the study revealed that self-leadership impacts employee creativity. Further, the findings showed that both organizational commitment and work engagement individually mediate the relationship between self-leadership and employee creativity. The key finding of this research was the partial serial mediation of organizational commitment and work engagement in the relationship between self-leadership and employee creativity.Originality/valueThis is one of the primary studies that examined the serial mediating effect of organizational commitment and work engagement in the relationship between self-leadership and employee creativity. This study contributes to the existing literature on self-leadership and employee creativity by evincing the mediating mechanism of organizational commitment and work engagement.