CREATIVE LEADERSHIP AS A COGNITIVE-SOCIAL BUFFER AGAINST RUMINATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL ANOMIE: THE FULL MEDIATION ROLE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND EMOTIONAL CAPACITY

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the full mediation effect of Creative Leadership (CL) in the relationship between employee Emotional Capacities (Emotional Contagion (EC), Emotional Intelligence (EI), and Emotion Regulation (ER)) and two critical forms of psychological strain: Rumination (R) and organizational Anomie (A). The research addresses the gap in understanding the specific psychological mechanism through which positive leadership prevents both individual cognitive dwelling and systemic organizational malaise. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed using a structured, self-administered survey. Data were collected from $N=350$ working professionals. Hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), with analysis conducted using SPSS and LISREL. Findings – The proposed structural model achieved an outstanding fit (RMSEA = 0.003). Emotional Contagion (beta = 1.42) was confirmed as the strongest positive predictor of perceived Creative Leadership. Crucially, CL acts as a significant negative buffer against both Anomie (beta = -0.34) and Rumination (beta = -0.29). The results confirmed that CL fully mediates the relationship between employee emotional capacities and strain outcomes. Research limitations/implications – The study's main limitation is its cross-sectional design, which restricts definitive causal inference. Practically, the findings imply that organizations should integrate emotional resonance into CL training to leverage the strong predictive power of Emotional Contagion. Future work should utilize longitudinal designs or test moderators to confirm the causal sequence and explore contextual variations. Originality/value – This paper provides a novel, empirically-validated framework quantifying CL’s role as a cognitive-social buffer against both individual (R) and organizational (A) strain. It uniquely establishes the paramount role of Emotional Contagion as the primary antecedent for effective Creative Leadership perception, refining leadership theory.