Understanding the dynamics between supervisor-follower social capital, work engagement, and employees' creative work involvement

This study examines the previously unexplored mediating role of work engagement in the link between creative work involvement and the relational resources embedded in supervisor‐follower exchanges. We studied three relational resources inherent to the exchanges between followers and their supervisors: trust in supervisor, goal congruence, and relationship informality. Data were captured from IT professionals working at four well‐established IT companies in Ukraine. The findings show that relationship informality and goal congruence positively affect employees' creative work involvement, yet these effects are less pronounced when controlling for work engagement. The significance and implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.