When leaders and peers positively facilitate creativity: the moderating role of absorptive capacity

Purpose This article explores the complementarity between leader encouragement of creativity and knowledge-sharing among peers in enhancing employee creativity in the hotel context. The authors further examine the role of absorptive capability in setting a contextual condition under which creativity affects employee performance. Design/methodology/approach A web-based survey and face-to-face interviews were a means of two-round data collection while using a partial least squares technique for model estimation. Findings An analysis of 277 employees showed that leader encouragement and knowledge-sharing are important for creativity to drive performance. At high levels of absorptive capacity, employee performance increases rapidly as creativity increases. Research limitations/implications This article extends how the complementarity between leader encouragement and knowledge-sharing plays an important role in explaining employee creativity and performance under the boundary condition of absorptive capacity. Practical implications Organizational managers could embrace a future creativity–performance strategy by developing absorptive capacity with reward systems to optimize employee performance. Originality/value This article substantiates the role of leader encouragement and knowledge-sharing in enhancing the relationship between employee creativity and performance. The strength of this relationship is dependent on the positive moderation of absorptive capacity.