International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Does leader-member exchange enhance performance in the hospitality industry? The mediating roles of
task motivation and creativity
Chung-Jen Wang
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Chung-Jen Wang , (2016),"Does leader-member exchange enhance performance in the hospitality industry? The mediating
roles of task motivation and creativity", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 28 Iss 5 pp. -
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 Does leader-member exchange enhance performance in the hospitality industry?

The mediating roles of task motivation and creativity

Submitted: 13 October 2014

1st Revision: 25 February 2015

2nd Revision: 10 May 2015

Accepted: 13 June 2015

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DOI: 10.1108/IJCHM-10-2014-0513

1. Introduction

Creativity, the capability to generate valuable and new ideas, is a critical ingredient

of an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage (Oldham and Cummings, 1996,

Amabile, 1988, Wang and Tsai, 2014). In the hospitality industry, organizations need

creative employees to provide knowledge intensive business services and maintain

long-term profitability (Hon, 2011, Wong and Ladkin, 2008, Wang et al., 2014).

Therefore, increasing consideration has been given to investigating the major factors

which influence creativity. For instance, leadership style, such as that highlighted in

leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, has been explored for its causal relationships

with subordinate creativity and performance at work. According to Graen and

Uhl-Bien (1995), LMX is based on the reciprocal relationship between employee and

supervisor, and can be regarded as the social exchange of trust, ideas, and obligations.

1
 In addition, Liden and Maslyn (1998) stated that work-related behaviors, respect for

the leaders’ skills and knowledge, loyalty to each other, and liking for one another can

all contribute to the development of LMX. Most important of all, employees with

high LMX find work to be more interesting and have a more positive attitude when

facing challenges, and thus enhanced work performance (Graen et al., 1982, Green et

al., 1996). High LMX employees also tend to have more creative ideas, with these
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new concepts being the seeds of high quality services, and able to facilitate greater

customer satisfaction and work performance (Li et al., 2012, Testa, 2009, Wang and

Wong, 2011, Magnini et al., 2013). The first objective of this study was thus to

explore the direct influence of LMX on employee performance, as well as on

employee creativity.

Task motivation is also regarded as a source of employee creativity and

performance (Amabile et al., 1996). Following Amabile’s (1988) componential theory

of organizational creativity and innovation, individuals with high task motivation may

inherently enjoy their job and have a tendency to generate more creative outcomes

(Shalley et al., 2009). Based on these ideas, leaders should work to extend the task

motivation of employees in order to foster their creativity and thus improve

performance (Chiang and Jang, 2008, Harris and Ogbonna, 2012, Johnson, 2009,

Kalargyrou and Woods, 2011, Mkono, 2010, Wang, 2014). Moreover, motivated

2
 employees with high quality reciprocal relationships with their supervisors are likely

to have more positive attitudes when facing challenges, and thus be better able to

offer high value added services to customers (Chang et al., 2011, Hon, 2011, Wong

and Pang, 2003, Chen et al., 2013, Karatepe and Tizabi, 2011). In this vein,

researchers have argued that task motivation could affect the relationship between

LMX and creativity (Tierney et al., 1999), while previous studies also shown that task
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motivation could affect employee creativity and performance (Amabile, 1988,

Amabile, 1997, Shalley et al., 2009). However, there have been no efforts to combine

these findings into a unified theoretical framework. As a result, the second purpose of

this study is to explore the two-path mediating effects of these variables in an

integrated structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. The research design will

help to obtain a better understanding of the mediating role of task motivation in the

relationship between LMX and creativity, as well as the mediating roles of task

motivation and creativity in the relationship between LMX and performance.

This study examined a set of 312 leader-employee dyadic data, and the results of

the SEM analyses reveal that LMX has significant direct effects on both employee

performance and creativity. In addition, the results also show that task motivation

mediates the relationship between LMX and creativity, while both task motivation and

creativity mediate the relationship between LMX and performance. Most important of

3
 all, this study provides an integrated perspective with bootstrap analyses and extends

the prior research of Tierney et al. (1999), which only examined the influences of

LMX and task motivation on creativity, and also expands Shalley et al.’s (2009) work

which only explored the influences of creativity and task motivation on performance.

In addition, this study not only adds to the literature on hospitality with its use of a

non-Western sample, but also adopts leader-employee dyadic data with time-lagged
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measurement to increase its accuracy of assessment. The conclusions provide

empirical evidence in an integrated model that task motivation can strengthen the

influence of LMX on creativity, and can also nourish the influence of creativity on

employee performance. Overall, as the development of the hotel industry needs good

relationships to exist among leaders and employees so that creative ideas and

performance can be improved, our study provides a more comprehensive

understanding of the relationships among LMX, task motivation, creativity and

performance in the context of the hospitality industry than is currently available in the

literature..

2. Literature review and hypotheses

This section first reviews the literature on LMX theory and the direct influence of

LMX on employee performance. It then examines the literature on the direct effect of

4
 LMX on employee creativity. Finally, it presents some hypotheses on the mediating

role of task motivation in the relationship between LMX and creativity, and the

mediating roles of task motivation and creativity in the relationship between LMX

and performance. The proposed research model is shown in Figure 1.

--------------------------------
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Insert Figure 1 about here

--------------------------------

2.1 The development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory

LMX theory proposes that leaders develop different exchange relationships with

employees (Graen et al., 1982), and that the nature of these reciprocal relationships

then determine the leaders’ allocation of work-related resources, job autonomy and

task assignments (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995, Scandura and Schriesheim, 1994). In

this vein, Graen and his colleagues defined LMX as a unidimensional construct

limited to work-related relationships (Graen et al., 1982, Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995,

Green et al., 1996). However, Dienesch and Liden (1986) proposed a

multidimensional version of LMX, stressing that exchange relationships might be

based on various different dimensions. For instance, leaders and employees may make

extra efforts to work together after normal work hours, while they may also have

5
 discussions about non-work issues during regular business hours (Liden and Maslyn,

1998). Therefore, Liden and Maslyn (1998) theorized that LMX is composed of four

dimensions: affect, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect. Affect refers to the

mutual affection that individuals have for each other based on interpersonal attraction.

Loyalty refers to the expressions of support that people may give for each other’s

assignments and goals. Contribution refers to the perceptions that a person has with
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regard to the contributions of others’ work-related activities. Finally, professional

respect refers to the admiration and respect that a person feels for their work or for the

professional values of others. We thus propose that LMX has multiple dimensions,

and that a consideration of these can provide more insights into the reciprocal

relationships that exist between leaders and employees.

2.2 The relationship between LMX and performance

Based on LMX theory, employees with good working relationships with their

supervisors have been seen as more likely to have greater job satisfaction, decreased

rates of turnover intention, and higher productivity (Scandura and Schriesheim, 1994).

Through a series of exchanges between leader and follower, the former may offer

empowerment to the latter, while the follower may then offer strong organizational

commitment to achieve better performance (Graen et al., 1982, Green et al., 1996).

6
 Moreover, this kind of dyad can lead to the investing of more resources for the

development of the reciprocal relationship, thus facilitating greater individual work

performance (Dienesch and Liden, 1986). The goal of hotel companies in the service

sector is to offer high standard and good services, and the bringing of these is more

likely to be achieved when employees feel encouraged, motivated and supported by

their leaders (Bauer and Green, 1996, Collins, 2010, Li et al., 2012). In the context of
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the hospitality industry, firms often require more committed employees to provide

high-level services and maintain customer loyalty (Chang et al., 2011, Wong and

Ladkin, 2008, Park and Levy, 2014, Karatepe and Demir, 2014, Giritlioglu et al., 2014,

Karatepe, 2013). The positive relationship between a leader and their subordinates can

thus foster employees’ intention to remain in the organization, and increase their

willingness to contribute their efforts to achieve work-related goals. Indeed, Cogliser

et al. (2009) showed that high levels of LMX are associated with improved job

performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Similarly, Bauer and

Green (1996) undertook a longitudinal study of 205 subordinates and their supervisors,

and found a positive relationship between the quality of LMX and member

performance. In addition, Dunegan et al. (1992) showed that LMX and performance

are significantly related to each other, based on a field study of 152 members. We thus

propose:

7
 Hypothesis 1. LMX is positively related to employee performance.

2.3 The relationship between LMX and creativity

Creativity refers to the capability to generate valuable and new ideas (Amabile,

1988). In the hospitality industry, organizations need employees with creativity to

provide high quality services for customers and maintain sustainable competitive
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advantages (Oldham and Cummings, 1996, Hon, 2012, Hon, 2011). Employee

creativity is thus regarded as an important issue in contemporary hospitality research

(Zhou and George, 2003, Horng and Lee, 2009, Hu et al., 2009, Wong and Pang, 2003,

Wang et al., 2014). Previous studies have examined the relationship between LMX

and creative activities, and stated that a high quality relationship with a leader can

help to increase the amount of energy that employees devote to their work, and thus

raise their level of creative involvement (Atwater and Carmeli, 2009, Erdogan and

Enders, 2007). More specifically, a supervisor can encourage their subordinates to

take responsibility for their actions when facing challenges, thus enhancing creative

performance. As the hospitality industry is a labor intensive one, talented and

motivated employees are the basis of high quality services and the resulting high

levels of customer satisfaction (Li et al., 2012, Testa, 2009, Wang and Wong, 2011).

Therefore, leveraging the influence of LMX on employees’ creative outcomes will

8
 help organizations to improve their competitiveness. Empirical evidence, such as that

reported by Liao et al. (2010) based on longitudinal data for 828 employees on 116

teams, revealed that LMX has unique positive effects on employee creativity. In

addition, Tierney et al. (1999) reported that there is a positive relationship between

LMX and creativity, based on sample of 191 employees, while Atwater and Carmeli

(2009) also found that high LMX can motivate individual creativity at work, based on
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an SEM analysis data from 193 employees. Consequently, the following hypothesis is

proposed:

Hypothesis 2. LMX is positively related to employee creativity.

2.4 The mediating influences of task motivation and creativity

Task motivation represents an employee’s attitude and initial level of motivation

toward a particular task (Amabile, 1988). Amabile (1997) stated that task motivation

nourishes creativity in all fields, and that it arises when employees feel that they are

doing something that is interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally

challenging. Most importantly, task motivation refers to when employees are attracted

to and energized by the task itself, instead of by the external outcomes (Ryan and Deci,

2000). In addition, Shin and Zhou (2003) reported that task motivation is an important

determinant of creativity at work, and employees with high task motivation may enjoy

9
 their work and contribute their efforts to produce outcomes with greater creativity and

improved performance. Therefore, companies in the hospitality industry need

motivated employees with creative abilities to adopt innovative methods, in order to

obtain and then maintain their competitive advantages (Hon, 2011, Hon, 2012, Wong

and Ladkin, 2008, Wang and Tsai, 2014). Moreover, motivated employees with high

quality reciprocal relationships with their supervisors can find their work to be more
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interesting, and thus have a more positive attitude when facing challenges (Graen and

Uhl-Bien, 1995, Graen et al., 1982, Green et al., 1996). That is, task motivation

enhances a worker's belief that a supervisor can be trusted, and this enhances their

creative performance. Especially in the context of the hospitality industry, highly

motivated employees can deliver better services to customers with more creativity

when they are supported by their leaders (Collins, 2010, Li et al., 2012, Kang et al.,

2012, Wang et al., 2014). For example, Chiang and Jang (2008) reported that task

motivation can positively affect creativity, based on a field study of 289 hotel

employees. Tierney et al. (1999) also revealed that the interaction of employee task

motivation and LMX can contribute to employee creative performance, using survey

data from 191 employees.

Furthermore, employees that have talent for creative processes can lead to both

radical and incremental refinements in how work is carried out (Gilson et al., 2005),

10
 and supervisors can thus consider this when rating their job performance (Gong et al.,

2009). More specifically, if employees are more creative at work, they can create

novel responses and deliver knowledge-intensive business services in relation to the

company’s products, processes, delivery and marketing strategies. In the field of

hospitality, creative employees can thus deal better with complicated tasks and

enhance their work performance (Wong and Ladkin, 2008, Hu et al., 2009, Wong and
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Pang, 2003). Creativity therefore flourishes in an environment that encourages

creative ideas, while successful fulfillment of these ideas has a significantly positive

impact on performance (Gilson et al., 2005). Following these arguments, scholars has

proposed the positive relationship between employee creativity and work performance.

For example, Gong et al. (2009) reported that employee creativity was positively

related to job performance from a survey of 492 members in 156 teams. Oldham and

Cummings (1996) examined 171 employees and found a positive relationship

between subordinate creativity and supervisor-rated performance. Ng and Feldman

(2009) also suggested that more creative individuals can significantly increase their

work performance, using survey data from 162 employees.

Moreover, workers hold high task motivation have a tendency to obtain creative

solutions. These motivated employees tend be more energized by their work, and so

increase work performance by offering high value-added services to customers

11
 (Chang et al., 2011, Hon, 2011, Wong and Pang, 2003, Wang and Tsai, 2014).

Therefore, when individuals are intrinsically involved in their work, they are more

likely to devote their creativity to enhance performance, as seen in a number of

previous studies. For instance, Conti et al. (1996) carried out a field study and

reported that the joint influence of employees’ task motivation and creativity can

increase their work performance. Similarly, Shalley et al. (2009) argued that the
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interaction of task motivation and creativity has a positive influence on work

performance, based on a study of 1,430 employees in the United States. As a result, it

is posited that task motivation has a mediating role between LMX and creativity,

while both task motivation and creativity have mediating roles between LMX and

performance, and we therefore propose:

Hypothesis 3. Task motivation mediates the effect of LMX on creativity.

Hypothesis 4. Both task motivation and creativity mediate the effect of LMX on

performance.

3. Methods

3.1. Research setting, participants, and procedures

According to a report produced by the Tourism Bureau in 2014, tourist hotels in

Taiwan can be divided into international tourist hotels and local tourist hotels. In 2014

12
 there were 72 international tourist hotels with 20,675 rooms and 20,987 employees,

and 42 local tourist hotels with 6,113 rooms and 4,665 employees. In addition,

international and domestic tourists spent an average of 52% of their total travel

expenditures on accommodation, with 88% of this going directly towards the revenue

of international tourist hotels. It can thus be seen that international tourist hotels in

Taiwan have more rooms, hire more employees, and contribute more heavily to the
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industry as a whole than local tourist hotels. This is the reason why we selected

international tourist hotels as the focus of the current research.

The research data were collected from Taiwanese international tourist hotels using

a convenience sampling method. The Human Resources (HR) managers of the hotels

were asked to participate in this survey, and 16 of them agreed to offer records of

leaders and their direct employees. The questionnaire used back-translation method in

this work to guarantee survey quality (Brislin, 1970). With the help of the HR

management departments, we then contacted the supervisors (from the major service

departments of the hotels, such as the Housekeeping, Reception, and Food &

Beverage departments) and their subordinates (i.e., employees in these departments)

in each hotel, and explained the aims of our study and the potential advantages of

participating in it. In order to confirm the measures’ reliability, a preliminary pilot test

was used to estimate the internal consistency based on 60 employees and 10

13
 supervisors. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were 0.92 for LMX, 0.88 for task

motivation, 0.93 for creativity, and 0.89 for performance respectively, thus giving

satisfactory reliability. This provides evidence that the right tools were used for

context of this study. In addition, to lower the concern of common method variance,

which is the existence of spurious correlations among constructs produced by

examining them with the same measurement method, instead of their true correlations
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(Podsakoff et al., 2003, Podsakoff and Organ, 1986), we separated our questionnaire

into two sections (employees and supervisors) and distribute them in two phases.

Employees were asked to complete the first section giving ratings to the LMX, task

motivation and creativity constructs in phase 1 (in June, 2014), while leaders were

given a separate section in order to rate the subordinates’ performance in phase 2 (in

July, 2014), which was implemented four weeks later. Five hundred questionnaires

were distributed and 372 employees (with 76 direct supervisors) responded, giving a

74 percent response rate. We excluded missing data from 24 employees who had no

supervisor response, 16 supervisors who had no employee response, and 20

incomplete questionnaires. Finally, 312 completed and acceptable employees’

questionnaires (with 60 direct supervisors) were used in this study. In our survey data,

each supervisor rated five members on average (ranging from three to 11), and had

worked with their subordinates for more than two years. Sixty-two percent of the

14
 respondents were female, and thirty-eight percent were male. In addition, the

employees’ average tenure in the company was five years, and sixty-three percent had

a bachelor’s degree or above.

3.2. Measures

LMX. Every subordinate reported their relationship with his/her leader using Liden
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and Maslyn's (1998) multidimensional measure of LMX with Likert-type scale

(ranging from 1, “strongly disagree,” to 7, “strongly agree”). This eleven-item

measure has multi-item subscales corresponding to four dimensions: (1) affect (e.g.,

“I like my supervisor very much as a person”); (2) loyalty (e.g., “My supervisor

defends my work actions to a superior, even without complete knowledge of the issue

in question”); (3) contribution (e.g., “I do work for my supervisor that goes beyond

what is specified in my job description”); and (4) professional respect (e.g., “I am

impressed with my supervisor's knowledge of his/her job”). The alpha for LMX was

0.86, showing adequate reliability.

Task motivation. We asked the employees to evaluate their task motivation with three

items from Shalley et al. (2009) with Likert-type scale. Sample items were “I take

pride in doing my job as well as I can” and “I feel a sense of personal satisfaction

when I do my job well.” The alpha for task motivation was 0.77, showing good

15
 reliability.

Creativity. We measured employee creativity using thirteen items reported by Zhou

and George (2001) with Likert-type scale. Sample items were “I always suggest new

ways to achieve goals or objectives” and “I often search out new technologies,

processes, techniques, and/or product ideas.” The alpha for creativity was 0.92,

offering adequate reliability.

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Performance. Performance was assessed using the five-item measure of in-role

performance by Mackenzie et al. (1991) with Likert-type scale. Leaders were asked to

indicate their subordinate’s performance with items such as “This employee always

completes the duties specified in his/her job description” and “This employee meets

all the formal performance requirements of the job.” The alpha for performance was

0.79, showing adequate reliability.

Control variables. Accounting for the heterogeneity of the sample, we controlled for

organizational tenure, age, gender, and education for employees. These variables have

been found to distinguish employee creativity (George and Zhou, 2001, Tierney and

Farmer, 2002) and relate to performance. Moreover, gender was measured as a

dichotomous variable (coded 1 = “female,” 2 = “male”), and education was measured

using a three-point Likert-type scale (1 = “high school,” 2 = “Bachelor’s degree,” 3 =

“Master’s degree”).

16
 3.3. Analytical strategy

We conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses with

maximum-likelihood estimation in order to test our hypotheses. According to

Anderson and Gerbing (1988), we used a two-stage method to investigate the

hypothesized model. The overall model’s fit indices were used to assess the model fit,
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with the result shown in Table 1 (Bollen, 1989, Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1982).

Meanwhile, the internal consistency reliability, convergent validity and discriminant

validity of the measurement model were examined with confirmatory factor analysis

(CFA). We then investigated our proposed model with a bootstrap estimation of SEM

analyses.

--------------------------------

Insert Table 1 about here

--------------------------------

4. Results

Table 2 presents the means, standard deviations, reliabilities, and correlations of the

study variables. The results show that age, gender, LMX, task motivation, and

creativity are positively related to performance (r= 0.09 - 0.56, all p values < 0.05);

gender, education, LMX, and task motivation are positively related to creativity (r=

17
 0.08 - 0.36, all p values < 0.05); education and LMX are positively related to task

motivation (r= 0.08 - 0.22, all p values < 0.05), and age is positively related to LMX

(r= 0.12, p value < 0.05).

--------------------------------

Insert Table 2 about here

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--------------------------------

4.1. Confirmatory factor analyses

To evaluate the internal consistency reliability, convergent validity and discriminant

validity of the measures, we conducted CFA with LMX, task motivation, creativity,

and performance constructs (see Table 3). The composite reliability (CR) of each

construct were 0.78 to 0.94, exceeding the 0.60 CR threshold value, therefore

supporting the internal consistency reliability among all the constructs (Bagozzi and

Yi, 1989, Fornell and Larcker, 1981). In addition, the factor loadings of measurement

model were statistically significant (all p values < 0.001), offering convergent validity

(Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). At the same time, the average variance extracted

(AVE) were 0.55 to 0.60, better than the 0.50 threshold value (Bagozzi and Yi, 1989,

Fornell and Larcker, 1981), and provide support for convergent validity.

18
 --------------------------------

Insert Table 3 about here

--------------------------------

4.2. Hypotheses testing

The SEM results show that our proposed structural model fits the data well (χ2 =

1273.50, df = 458, χ2 /df = 2.78, IFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92, CFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.06,
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and SRMR = 0.03, see Table 3). For Hypotheses 1 and 2, we used Baron and Kenny’s

(1986) method of applying a causal steps strategy to evaluate mediation. In Table 2,

the correlation coefficients reveal that LMX is positively and significantly related to

performance (r = 0.28, p value < 0.01), while LMX is positively and significantly

related to creativity (r = 0.19, p value < 0.01). Moreover, Figure 2 shows that the

direct effect of LMX on performance is statistically significant ( direct effect = 0.38, p

value < 0.01), as is the direct influence of LMX on creativity ( direct effect = 0.27, p

value < 0.01). Therefore, Hypotheses 1 and 2 were both supported.

--------------------------------

Insert Figure 2 about here

--------------------------------

For Hypotheses 3 and 4, we further investigated the causal chain relationships

19
 among LMX, task motivation, creativity, and performance. In Table 2, the correlation

coefficients show that LMX is positively and significantly related to task motivation

(r = 0.22, p value < 0.01), task motivation is positively and significantly related to

creativity (r = 0.36, p value < 0.01), and creativity is positively and significantly

related to performance (r = 0.56, p value < 0.01). In addition, Figure 3 indicates that

the direct effect of LMX on task motivation is significant ( direct effect = 0.31, p
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value < 0.01), as is the direct influence of task motivation on creativity ( direct effect

= 0.45, p value < 0.01), and the direct influence of creativity on performance ( direct

effect = 0.69, p value < 0.01).

In order to test whether the dependent variables had any indirect effects via the

mediators, a 95% confidence interval of 5,000 bootstrap samples is desired to assess

the mediating effects of the proposed model (Taylor et al., 2008). We following

Preacher and Hayes (2008) to code the standard error in path coefficients. In Table 4,

a significant mediating effect of task motivation between LMX and creativity

( indirect effect = 0.14, p < 0.01), and the existence of the significant mediating

effects of task motivation and creativity between LMX and performance ( indirect

effect = 0.10, p < 0.05). As a result, Hypotheses 3 and 4 were both supported.

--------------------------------

20
 Insert Figure 3 about here

--------------------------------

--------------------------------

Insert Table 4 about here

--------------------------------

5. Discussion
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The main purpose of this study was to investigate the causal relationships among

LMX, task motivation, creativity and performance. Integrating LMX and creativity

theory, we propose that task motivation has a mediating role in the influence of LMX

on employee creativity, while both task motivation and creativity have mediating roles

in the influence of LMX on employee performance.

With efforts to combine these variables into a unified theoretical framework, this

study is the first in the field of hospitality research which explores the two-path

mediating effects of these relationships in an integrated structural equation modeling

(SEM) framework. More specifically, this study provides a synthesized perspective

with bootstrap analyses to broaden hotel research with regard to LMX, and examine

its influences on employees’ creative behavior and work performance. Furthermore,

this study not only adds to the hospitality literature with its use of a non-Western

sample, but also adopts leader-employee dyadic data as well as time-lagged

21
 measurements to increase the accuracy of the assessment results.

Overall, as the continued development of the hotel industry needs good

relationships to exist between leaders and employees to enhance both creative ideas

and performance, our study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the

relationships among LMX, task motivation, creativity and performance in the context

of this business. That is, high quality LMX in hotels can promote employees’ task
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motivation, and thus enhance novel outcomes and performance, and ultimately

contribute to greater profitability and organizational success. Both researchers and

managers in the hotel industry are thus suggested to pay more attention to the positive

influences that leaders can have on their employees. The results of this study have

several theoretical and managerial implications as follows.

5.1. Theoretical implications

In a highly competitive business environment, leaders often face challenges in

fostering the task motivation and creative behaviors of employees that are conducive

to better performance. In the field of hospitality, it is especially important for

supervisors to motivate employees to provide the high quality services that can

support the long-term profitability of hotels (Hon, 2011, Wong and Ladkin, 2008).

The results of this work provide empirical support for integrating LMX theory with

22
 creativity research, as well as for expanding the theory to examine how it relates to

better work performance. The findings reveal that LMX has direct positive influences

on both employee creativity and performance. These results imply that employees

with high LMX are able to have a more positive attitude at work, and thus improved

performance (Graen et al., 1982, Green et al., 1996). Meanwhile, high LMX

employees tend to be more creative, which can lay the basis for the provision of high
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quality services and enhanced performance (Li et al., 2012, Testa, 2009, Wang and

Wong, 2011).

In addition, researchers have argued that task motivation could influence the

relationship between LMX and creativity (Tierney et al., 1999), while prior studies

also revealed that task motivation could influence employee creativity and

performance (Amabile, 1988, Amabile, 1997, Shalley et al., 2009). However, as yet

there have been no efforts to integrate these findings into a unified theoretical

framework. The current study demonstrates that task motivation has a pivotal role in

linking LMX to creative behavior. In support of LMX and creativity theory, our

findings prove that high LMX does indeed contribute to task motivation, which

further increases employee creativity. This suggests that LMX can be used to generate

resources to enhance both task motivation and creativity. Therefore, in keeping with

LMX and creativity theory related analyses (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995, Amabile et

23
 al., 1996, Amabile, 1988, Gilson et al., 2005, Graen et al., 1982), our results provide

further evidence that employees with high LMX and task motivation are more likely

to foster their creativity at work.

Last but not least, this is the first work in the context of hospitality to investigate

both the mediating roles of task motivation and creativity in the relationship between

LMX and employee performance. We argue that LMX, task motivation and creativity
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can help to increase work performance. Most important of all, high LMX employees

in the hospitality industry tend to have more motivation and creative ideas, which, as

noted above, are associated with greater customer satisfaction and work performance

(Li et al., 2012, Testa, 2009, Wang and Wong, 2011). Our conclusions thus extend the

prior research of Tierney et al. (1999), which only examined the effects of LMX and

task motivation on creativity, and also expand Shalley et al.’s (2009) work, which

only investigated the influences of creativity and task motivation on performance.

Accordingly, our study provides support that task motivation can strengthen the

influence of LMX on creativity, and can also enhance the influence of creativity on

work performance.

5.2. Managerial implications

The results of this study have some managerial implications for how to leverage

24
 LMX to enhance employee creativity and performance through task motivation. First,

hotel companies can encourage leaders to build high-quality relationships with their

members, and also encourage subordinates to have better relationships with their

supervisors (Liao et al., 2010). This is because the goal of the hospitality industry is to

meet the expectations of customers, and high quality services are more likely to be

delivered if employees have highly reciprocal relationships with their leaders (Chang
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et al., 2011, Wong and Ladkin, 2008). Most importantly, the positive relationships that

exist between supervisors and their subordinates can encourage employees to stay

with the organization and to perform their tasks more creatively. As all innovative

knowledge-intensive businesses begin with a person or team having creative ideas,

efforts to enhance creativity and thus improve performance should focus on raising

LMX and task motivation. More specifically, the accumulation of LMX, task

motivation and creativity can together lead to the delivery of high quality services.

Accordingly, HR managers or department leaders in hotels should provide more

opportunities for employee job rotation. This would give staff more chances to work

on the tasks that interest them, thus raising their task motivation and creativity at work,

and contributing to both improved performance and better service quality. Meanwhile,

HR departments can also provide training programs for supervisors and employees to

enhance their reciprocal relationships, and establish reward mechanisms to encourage

25
 the development and implementation of more creative solutions or services at work.

Such practices would promote LMX, task motivation and creativity, enhance hotel

employee performance, and lead to desirable outcomes for the hotels themselves.

5.3. Limitations and suggestions for future research

First, this study could lead to the conclusions with regard to causality. Though the
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survey were collected through leaders and employees, our proposed model could not

overcome this limitation. Future studies can thus use experimental research methods

to lower this concern and examine the influences of leadership styles on employee

creativity and performance. A second limitation of our research is that the data may

suffer from CMV, as we asked employees to self-report their LMX, task motivation

and creativity, while supervisors were asked to rate their subordinates’ work

performance. However, our proposed four-factor model was examined with post hoc

CFA analyses, and the results reveal significantly satisfactory model fit and

discriminant validity. Therefore, CMV did not significantly influence our research

constructs, and should not cause problems with our findings (Podsakoff et al., 2003,

Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). However, we also advocate to adopt other research

designs, such as using secondary data to access creative performance of employees

and provide more robust results. Third, we chose Taiwanese international tourist

26
 hotels as the focus of our research, and local tourist hotels were excluded. Although

international tourist hotels have more rooms, hire more employees, and contribute

more to this industry than local tourist hotels, future studies could include samples

from the latter to provide a broader perspective for hospitality research. Fourth, an

international tourist hotel may be staffed by leaders and subordinates from

multi-cultural backgrounds, and this study ignored issues related to this. Future
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research can thus consider cross-cultural research in relation to LMX, or the impact of

culture on employees in a multi-cultural organization. Finally, this study extends

creativity research by mainly focusing on the mediating role of subordinates’ task

motivation. Future research could investigate other critical mediating constructs, such

as self-efficacy or extrinsic reward (Shalley et al., 2004), and further examine their

relationships with creativity and performance.

In conclusion, this study integrated leader-member exchange (LMX), creativity

and performance research in an SEM model with bootstrap estimation. The results

revealed that LMX positively affected performance and creativity. Furthermore, task

motivation was found to mediate the relationship between LMX and creativity, while

both task motivation and creativity were found to mediate the relationship between

LMX and performance. Most important of all, the results of this study not only

27
 provide a comprehensive perspective that enriches the hospitality literature based on

an integrated model, but the usage of a supervisor-subordinate dyadic sample with

time-lagged survey also increases the accuracy of the related research assessment.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for useful suggestions and
the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan for financial support (Grant
number: NSC 103-2410-H-451-001-).

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39
 Figure 1. The proposed structural equation modeling framework
H1

H2

H3 H4

Task
LMX motivation Creativity Performance
(phase 1) (phase 1) (phase 1) (phase 2)
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Age Education Tenure Gender

Figure 2. Direct effects of LMX on task motivation, creativity, and performance

Task
motivation
.32**

LMX .27**
Creativity

.38**

Performance

Note: N = 312; * p < .05; ** p < .01

40
 Figure 3. Standardized structural equation modeling
.06

.02

.31** .45** .69**

LMX Task Creativity Performance

motivation
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.07 .01 -.01 .12**

-.05 .05 -.01 .09*
Age Education Tenure Gender

Note: (1) N = 312; * p < .05; ** p < .01

(2) χ2 = 1361.36, df = 476, χ2 /df = 2.60, IFI = .91, TLI = .91, CFI = .91, RMSEA = .06 and
SRMR = .04

41
 Table 1. The measurement model.
Fit indices Model values Reference values Overall model fit
χ2/df 2.78 < 5.00 Yes
IFI 0.93 > 0.90 Yes
TLI 0.92 > 0.90 Yes
CFI 0.92 > 0.90 Yes
Standardized RMR 0.03 < 0.05 Yes
RMSEA 0.06 < 0.05 Acceptable

Table 2. Means, standard deviations and intercorrelations among variables

Mean S.D. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. Tenure 5.12 0.76 -
2. Age 39.47 0.84 0.72** -
3. Gender 1.41 0.48 - 0.07 - 0.23** -
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4. Education 2.35 0.57 - 0.07 - 0.06 - 0.10* -

5. LMX 5.32 0.72 0.04 0.12* 0.01 0.09* -
6. Task motivation 5.63 0.50 0.05 0.06 - 0.02 0.08* 0.22** -
7. Creativity 4.89 0.69 - 0.01 - 0.08* 0.09* 0.08* 0.19** 0.36** -
8. Performance 4.64 0.57 - 0.02 0.09* 0.12* 0.03 0.28** 0.42** 0.56** -
Note: N = 312; * p < .05; ** p < .01

42
 Table 3. Coefficients of the four-factor measurement model

Construct No. Cronbach Variable Standardized S.E. C.R. AVE Composite

of ’s α factor (t-value) reliability
items loadings

LMX 11 0.86 LMX 1 0.83 - - 0.58 0.94

LMX 2 0.79 0.04 21.74 (***)
LMX 3 0.71 0.05 18.42 (***)
LMX 4 0.76 0.04 20.55 (***)
LMX 5 0.84 0.04 23.61 (***)
LMX 6 0.71 0.05 18.39 (***)
LMX 7 0.79 0.04 21.64 (***)
LMX 8 0.72 0.05 19.89 (***)
LMX 9 0.71 0.04 19.37 (***)
LMX 10 0.84 0.04 23.76 (***)
LMX 11 0.72 0.05 18.81 (***)
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Task 3 0.77 TMO 1 0.74 - - 0.55 0.78

motivation TMO 2 0.76 0.09 12.03 (***)
TMO 3 0.72 0.08 11.47 (***)
Creativity 13 0.92 CRE 1 0.79 - - 0.60 0.94
CRE 2 0.80 0.05 19.26 (***)
CRE 3 0.80 0.05 19.28 (***)
CRE 4 0.77 0.05 18.28 (***)
CRE 5 0.79 0.05 18.57 (***)
CRE 6 0.73 0.06 14.28 (***)
CRE 7 0.71 0.06 11.11 (***)
CRE 8 0.78 0.05 18.82 (***)
CRE 9 0.80 0.05 19.29 (***)
CRE 10 0.78 0.05 18.72 (***)
CRE 11 0.78 0.05 18.67 (***)
CRE 12 0.80 0.05 19.28 (***)
CRE 13 0.77 0.05 18.61 (***)
Performance 5 0.79 PER 1 0.71 - - 0.56 0.86
PER 2 0.81 0.06 15.67 (***)
PER 3 0.76 0.07 15.22 (***)
PER 4 0.71 0.09 12.78 (***)
PER 5 0.75 0.08 14.14 (***)
Note: (1) N = 312; *** p < .001
(2) χ2 = 1273.50, χ2 /df = 2.78, IFI = 0.93, CFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.06, and SRMR = 0.03

43
 Table 4. Standardized direct and indirect paths
Path Coefficients Bootstrapping
Percentile 95% CI Bias-corrected Significance
Percentile 95% CI
SE Z Lo Up Lo Up
Standardized Indirect Paths
LMX→Creativity 0.14 0.04 3.31 0.07 0.23 0.07 0.23 0.00 **
LMX→Performance 0.10 0.04 2.52 0.04 0.12 0.04 0.12 0.03 *
Standardized Direct Paths
LMX→Motivation 0.31 0.05 4.93 0.26 0.49 0.26 0.49 0.00 **
LMX→Creativity 0.02 0.05 0.41 -0.14 0.16 -0.14 0.17 0.73
LMX→Performance 0.06 0.04 1.51 -0.04 0.17 -0.04 0.17 0.12
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Motivation→Creativity 0.45 0.08 8.03 0.26 0.52 0.26 0.53 0.00 **

Creativity→Performance 0.69 0.03 16.21 0.69 0.85 0.69 0.85 0.00 **
Note: N = 312; * p < .05; ** p < .01

44
 About the author

The author- Dr. Chung-Jen Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of

Hospitality Management at MingDao University in Taiwan. His research interests
focus on organizational behavior in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry. His articles
have appeared or have been accepted for publication in Tourism Management,
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Service Business,
International Journal of Information and Management Sciences, and other refereed
conference proceedings.
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45