African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 8 (Special Edition CUT) - (2019) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2019 AJHTL /Author/s- Open Access- Online @ http//: www.ajhtl.com 1 Fostering creativity and innovation though leadership and affective commitment: The moderated mediation analysis Peter Khaola Department of Business Administration National University of Lesotho E-mail: pp.khaola@nul.ls Abstract Leadership and individual commitment are important for creativity and innovation. However, little work has been reported on how transformational leadership interact with affective commitment to influence these constructs. The purpose of this paper was to examine the moderating effect of affective commitment on transformational leadership, and how the joint effects of transformational leadership and affective commitment affect both creativity and innovation. The evaluation was based on the analysis of data from 263 randomly selected employees in public and private sector organisations. Hierarchical moderated mediation analyses and PROCESS macro were utilised. The results suggest that the effect of transformational leadership on creativity was moderated by affective commitment, and in turn creativity partially mediated the joint effects of transformational leadership and affective commitment on innovation. The study found the joint effects of transformational leadership and individual commitment as an important factor for creativity and innovation. This finding provides an understanding of the theoretical and practical importance of these concepts for future research with potential for applied transformational leadership theory in academia. Key words: Affective commitment, creativity, innovation, transformational leadership Introduction There has been a growing interest on how transformational leadership influences creativity and innovation (Mumford, Scott, Gaddis & Strange, 2002; Pieterse, van Knippenberg, Schippers & Stam, 2010). By transforming personal values and self-concepts of followers, and elevating them to higher aspirations, transformational leaders influence intrinsic motivation of followers (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009); thereby increasing their creativity and innovation (Amabile and Pillemer, 2012). Furthermore, through individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation, transformational leaders build self-efficacy and empowerment of followers, which in turn affect creativity (Gumuslouglu & Ilsev, 2009). Notwithstanding these compelling conceptual expectations, the effects of transformational leadership on creativity and innovation have been equivocal (Khaola & Coldwell, 2019a; 2019b; Mumford & Lucuanan, 2004). This paper suggests the need for models that incorporate mediating and moderating factors in the prediction of creativity and innovation. Creativity and innovation are vital for competitive advantage of organisations and economies (Anderson, Potočnik & Zhou, 2014; Gumuslouglu & Ilsev, 2009). It has been argued that the foundation of innovation is ideas, and ideas are developed, supported and implemented by and through people (Janssen, 2000, Scott & Bruce, 1994). Several studies have shed some light on how a variety of factors moderate or mediate the impact of transformational leadership on creativity and innovation (Khaola & Coldwell, 2019a, 2019b; Qu, Janssen & Shi, 2015). However, little work has been reported on how such leadership interacts with affective commitment to influence creativity (Avolio, Walumbwa & Weber, 2009). Since innovation is the result of creative efforts, the current paper seeks to gain a deeper understanding on how affective commitment moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and creativity; and how creativity in turn influences innovation. Put differently, the paper focuses at elucidating