How leader emotional labour is associated with creativity: A self-determination theory perspective

Emotional labour is an important but overlooked leadership function. In the present research, we draw from the self-determination theory perspective and take a leader-centric approach to examine how different leader emotional labour strategies affect leaders' own creativity. Using data collected from 118 leaders and 352 team members at three time points, we found that leader surface acting harmed leader creativity by reducing fulfillment of leader autonomy, while leader deep acting boosted leader creativity by increasing fulfillment of leader autonomy. Neither did leader surface acting nor deep acting influence leader creativity through competence or relatedness fulfillment. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the present research.