Unlocking Employee Creativity in Hospitality: How Empowering Leadership Builds Psychological Empowerment and Job Engagement in an Emerging Economy Context a PLS-SEM Analysis of Sequential Mediation Mechanisms in Ghana's Hotel Industry.

Abstract:

Purpose – This study examines how empowering leadership enhances employee creativity through psychological empowerment and job engagement in Ghana’s hospitality industry. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data from 423 hospitality employees were analyzed using PLS-SEM, testing direct, parallel, and sequential mediation effects with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Findings – Empowering leadership significantly predicted creativity, psychological empowerment, and job engagement. Psychological empowerment and job engagement both independently and sequentially mediated the leadership–creativity relationship. The model explained 67.8% of the variance in employee creativity, with most effects operating indirectly through empowerment and engagement. Practical implications – Hospitality organisations should strengthen empowering leadership, foster psychologically empowering work environments, and design engaging jobs to stimulate employee creativity. Originality/value – The study advances leadership and creativity research by uncovering sequential mediation mechanisms in an under-researched African hospitality context.