<p>This study aims to examine the moderated mediation model of the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee creativity through the lens of social exchange theory and role theory. Specifically, it investigates the mediating roles of work involvement and role ambiguity, as well as the moderating role of paradoxical thinking. Through analysing questionnaire data from 725 employees across 217 companies in China, our findings reveal that paradoxical leadership significantly enhances employee creativity, mediated by work involvement and role ambiguity. Our analysis also suggests that paradoxical thinking moderates the relationships between paradoxical leadership and both job involvement and role ambiguity. Specifically, employees with higher levels of paradoxical thinking experience greater work involvement and less role ambiguity under paradoxical leadership, ultimately leading to increased creativity. Our study shows that paradoxical leadership can boost employee creativity, emphasizing the beneficial impacts of cultivating paradoxical thinking among employees and providing practical recommendations for organizations to achieve this. Future studies can consider conducting longitudinal and experimental approaches to examine the causal associations between these variables.</p>