Don’t Forget to Keep Polite When Rejecting Others: The Moderating Role of Leader Politeness in the Relationship Between Leader Idea Rejection and Employee Creativity

In the course of pursuing innovation, employees’ ideas are inevitably subject to rejection by their leaders. As a prevalent phenomenon in the workplace, more and more scholars have begun to delve into leaders’ idea rejection. Yet we know little about how a leader’s idea rejection might impact employees’ cognitive and behavioral reactions and further affect their subsequent creative process. Drawing on self-concept theory, this study will examine how leaders' rejection of ideas impacts employee creativity and the key boundary conditions underlying this relationship.