Leader Self-Reported Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Employee Creativity: An Exploratory Study Arménio Rego, Filipa Sousa, Miguel Pina e Cunha, Anabela Correia and Irina Saur-Amaral This research studies the relationship between six dimensions of leaders’ emotional intelli- gence and two dimensions of employee creativity. A sample of 138 managers from 66 organi- zations reported on their own emotional intelligence and the creativity of their teams. Our results point out two main findings: (a) leaders’ emotional intelligence explains significant variance of both creativity dimensions; (b) emotional intelligence dimensions with higher predictive power are self-control against criticism and empathy. The findings suggest that emotionally intelligent leaders behave in ways that stimulate the creativity of their teams. C reativity in the workplace can be defined as the production of novel and useful ideas or solutions (Amabile, 1988; Oldham & Cummings, 1996; Zhou & George, 2001, 2003). Novelty or originality is required for an idea to be judged creative, but ‘ideas must also be useful to be considered creative. A novel idea that has no potential value is unusual but not creative’ (Zhou & George, 2001, p. 547). Simply producing a large number of ideas is not the goal of creative performance. Rather, the goal is to solve problems, to create new products and services, to take advantage of business opportunities, and to improve orga- nization effectiveness. Underlying this defini- tion is the idea that employee creativity is often the starting point for innovation (Zhou & George, 2001) and a critical resource for orga- nizational success. In modern organizations, work is increasingly more knowledge-based and less rigidly defined and specified. En- vironmental opportunities and challenges require new approaches and it is hoped that these are more creative than those expressed by competitors. In short, to survive and prosper, organizations need to take full advan- tage of their employees’ creative potential, so that innovation, change, learning, perfor- mance and competitiveness can be achieved (Woodman, Sawyer & Griffin, 1993; McAdam & Keogh, 2004). Organizational behaviour research on employee creativity has examined mainly con- textual or organizational factors that facilitate or inhibit creativity. One key contextual factor is leadership. Several researchers have focused on identifying the role played by specific lead- ership behaviours on supporting, suppress- ing, facilitating or inhibiting creativity (e.g., Oldham & Cummings, 1996; Tierney, Farmer & Graen, 1999; Shin & Zhou, 2003; Zhou, 2003). These include transformational leadership, close monitoring, developmental feedback, supportive supervision, and controlling super- vision. However, Zhou and George (2003) asserted that little theory has been developed to pinpoint the roots of these behaviours. They further suggested that one root is the leader’s emotional intelligence (EI). According to Zhou and George, modern organizations are locked in a paradox between control and creativity. Organizations and their leaders need to influence and control employ- ees to work in predetermined ways to meet specific objectives. To ensure smooth and effi- cient operations, they are strongly dependent upon control systems, standardized practices and routines. But organizations also need change and improvement in their practices, routines, products and services in order to respond to environmental changes, challenges and opportunities. The paradox becomes 250 CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT Volume 16 Number 3 2007 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8691.2007.00435.x © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing