Creative deviance, the act of employees implementing ideas despite being rejected by their managers, is a common phenomenon in organizations. Extant research focuses only on employees' practice of creative deviance, ignoring the fact that leaders may also be behavioral agents of creative deviance. In this paper, we integrate social information processing theory and social learning theory to shed light on the effects of leader creative deviance on follower deviance behavior as well as innovation behavior. We use an exploratory, mixed-method approach (i.e., a qualitative study and a field survey) to test our theoretical model. In Study 1, we conducted an in-depth interview of 44 followers and 20 leaders from 20 R&D teams to identify (1) follower’s deviant behaviors and innovative behaviors are the most important behavioral consequences of leader creative deviance. And (2) Perceived work moralization and perceived innovation importance are the two most frequently mentioned psychological reactions, which may be the potential explanation mechanism of deviant and innovative behavior of followers. Combining the two primary mechanisms and one key boundary condition identified in Study 1, we collected data from 254 employees and their leader with a three-wave survey in Study 2, which revealed that, on the one hand, leader creative deviance led to follower deviance behavior by decrease follower’s perceived work moralization; on the other hand, leader creative deviance increase follower innovation behavior by stimulating follower’s perceived innovation importance. Our findings also show that follower’s identification with the leader will strengthen the above effects. These findings demonstrate the double-edged role of leader creative deviance, as well as extend the social learning process for followers from their leader.
