scholarly journals Empowering leadership and innovative work behavior: the mediating effects of climate for initiative and job autonomy in Moroccan SMEs

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abderrahman Hassi ◽  
Sylvia Rohlfer ◽  
Simon Jebsen

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to explore the role of empowering leadership, organizational climate for initiative and job autonomy in spurring innovative work behavior (IWB).Design/methodology/approachThis study resorted to the structural equation modeling technique along the Bayesian estimation approach to analyze the mediating role of the organizational climate for initiative and job autonomy in the empowering leadership-IWB link in data gathered from CEOs, middle managers and non-managerial employees of 444 small and medium enterprises in Morocco.FindingsThe findings revealed that empowering leadership is a prerequisite of IWB as subordinates, who are empowered by their leaders and demonstrate IWB. Further, organizational climate for initiative and job autonomy mediate the empowering leadership-IWB link.Practical implicationsThis research has demonstrated that firms and organizational leaders who seek to make their middle managers innovative in their job should adopt empowering leadership practices, build an organizational climate that is favorable for initiative-taking and grant middle managers with autonomy in the way they carry out their tasks.Originality/valueThis paper extends our understanding on the mechanisms linking empowering leadership and IWB by testing the mediating effects of organizational climate for initiative and job autonomy.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Mumtaz Khan ◽  
Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik ◽  
Syed Saad Ahmed ◽  
Tahir Islam ◽  
Essa Khan

PurposeThis study aims to ascertain the role of servant leadership in inducing flow at work. The study, along with confirming the relation between flow at work and innovative work behavior (IWB), intends to explore the mediating role flow at work plays in relating servant leadership to IWB.Design/methodology/approachThe data collection was conducted through an interviewee-administered questionnaire in three waves that were four weeks apart. The data were collected from 267 respondents. To run the measurement model and structural model, Smart-PLS was used, and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) was used to summarize the demographic information and conduct hierarchal regression.FindingsServant leadership is related to flow at work. Additionally, flow at work is related to IWB. Finally, flow at work mediates the relationship between servant leadership and IWB.Originality/valueThe study found servant leadership is related to flow at work. Moreover, the study unearthed the relation between flow at work and IWB. Finally, the study unveiled that flow at work acts as a mediator between servant leadership and IWB.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil Knezović ◽  
Amina Drkić

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of innovative work behavior (IWB) by examining the moderating role of transformational leadership in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approachThe study surveyed 371 employees from SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina by adopting convenience sampling. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings supported the authors’ assumptions that IWB determinants such as psychological empowerment, participation in the decision-making process and organizational justice are positively related to IWB. Besides, transformational leadership moderates the relationship between organizational justice and IWB.Research limitations/implicationsThe data for this study was collected by using convenience sampling as well as a cross-sectional survey method, which limits the generalization of results.Practical implicationsTo spur the IWB among the employees in SMEs, an organization has to create an environment where psychological empowerment is high, employees have a chance to participate in the decision-making process and organizational rules and procedures are fair. In the case of organizational justice, the relationship shall be stronger if transformational leadership is present.Originality/valueIn SMEs, transformational leadership plays an important role. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates the moderating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between one specific IWB determinant and IWB.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Mumtaz Khan ◽  
Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik ◽  
Tahir Islam

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to ascertain the role of servant leadership in causing innovative work behavior. The study also examines the mediating role of job crafting and sequential mediating role of trust and job crafting between servant leadership and innovative work behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 258 knowledge workers employed in software houses in Pakistan through survey design. The data analysis was done through structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results of the analysis of 258 respondents show that servant leadership is related with trust, job crafting and innovative work behavior. The mediation analysis revealed that job crafting mediates the relation between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. Finally, the relation between servant leadership and innovative work behavior was found to be sequentially mediated by trust and job crafting.Originality/valueThe current study contributes to delineating the linking mechanism between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. The main contributions of the study are exploring the mediating role of job crafting along with the sequential mediating role of trust and job crafting.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bilal Afsar ◽  
Basheer M. Al-Ghazali ◽  
Sadia Cheema ◽  
Farheen Javed

PurposeBecause of the rapidly changing environment and fleeting market opportunities, employee's innovative work behavior is increasingly assuming a pivotal role in enhancing organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage. The success of organizations is largely depended on their employees' ability to innovate. The role of cultural intelligence to enhance innovative work behavior is yet to be explored in the innovation research. The purpose of this study is to examine how cultural intelligence enhances employees' innovative work behavior through work engagement and interpersonal trust.Design/methodology/approachThe study is a cross-sectional design which utilizes data from 381 participants from multinational corporations in Saudi Arabia.FindingsThe results indicate that cultural intelligence can significantly affect employee's innovative work behavior. It further reveals that both work engagement and interpersonal trust partially mediate the effect of cultural intelligence on innovative work behavior.Originality/valueThis study adds to the literature on intelligence by examining an underexplored type of intelligence (i.e. cultural intelligence) in relation to employee's innovative work behavior. It reveals work engagement and interpersonal trust as the psychological mechanisms that can link cultural intelligence to innovative work behaviors.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuğba Erhan ◽  
Hasan Huseyin Uzunbacak ◽  
Erhan Aydin

Purpose The leadership shift from conventional to digital comes from the compulsory digitalization of the workplace because the technological progress provides the opportunity of doing work remotely, and this is a great advantage of reducing costs that stem from the offline workplace. Thus, this research aims at demonstrating the relationship between digitalization of leadership and innovative work behavior. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 320 Turkish department managers in the Textile Industry through digital leadership and innovate work behavior scales. The hypotheses were tested using path analysis. The analyses were conducted by using SPSS and AMOS package programs. Findings The results show that the employees’ perceptions of digital leadership have a positive and significant effect on all dimensions of an employee innovative work behavior. Also, the leaders with high digital skills were perceived positively by the employees and the employees tend to adapt innovative behaviors when they have the digitally skilled leaders. Originality/value This study contributes to leadership research by providing evidence for the role of leadership shift in innovative work behavior. Extending the verification of leadership shift in innovative work behavior that can be adopted in Turkey has also been considered.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1030-1044 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Gkorezis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to extant literature by linking principal empowering leadership to teachers’ innovative work behavior. By doing so, the author attempts to provide a more nuanced understanding of this relationship by examining a moderated mediation model which encompasses exploration as a mediator and role conflict as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 201 public teachers. In order to examine the present hypotheses bootstrapping analysis, Sobel test and SPSS macro were used. Findings – The results demonstrated that teacher exploration mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and innovative work behavior and, further, that this indirect effect is contingent on role conflict. Practical implications – Based on the present findings, in order to enhance innovation, schools need to promote both empowering leadership style and their teachers’ exploration. Moreover, principals should refrain from providing conflicting orders and expectations from their teachers because such conditions will eliminate the positive effect of their empowering behaviors on teachers’ exploration and innovative work behavior. Originality/value – This is the first study that develops and tests a moderated mediation model regarding the relationship between principal empowering leadership and teacher innovative behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 722-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Pauletto D’Arrigo ◽  
Eduardo Robini ◽  
Fabiano Larentis ◽  
Maria Emilia Camargo ◽  
Peter Schmiedgen

Purpose The paper aims to identify the relationship between the use of storytelling and innovative work behavior (IWB) in organizations. Design/methodology/approach The research took place in a human resource development (HRD) training session for leaders of Alpha Group. In this session, storytelling was adopted to discuss innovation and IWB. Following the training, the leaders completed a questionnaire about the effectiveness of the stories for the construction of knowledge and IWB. Data were collected from 97 leading sectors. Subsequently, data analysis was performed to identify correlations between the aspects. Findings The paper provides empirical insights about the use of storytelling, the effectiveness of the stories, as well as their relationship with the innovative behavior of sectors leaders in a Brazilian organization. It has identified the relation between effectiveness of stories and level of innovative behavior. Research limitations/implications Owing to the chosen research approach, the research results cannot be generalized. Because it is a study of a single organization, the results concern to the reality experienced in the organization studied. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test this relationship in other organizations to contribute to the discussion and practice of innovation in HRD. Practical implications Stories can contribute to innovative behavior, and innovative behavior contributes to helping understand the stories. HRD practitioners can provide the use of storytelling, combined with other forms of interventions, to enhance IWB to promote collaborative learning culture and work engagement. Originality/value Previous papers have identified the role of HRD in the development of IWB in organizations. Theoretically, previous papers have also highlighted that storytelling can be a tool for the development of innovative behavior. The paper empirically has tested these contributions, identifying emerging aspects of this relationship.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Ma Prieto ◽  
Ma Pilar Pérez-Santana

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of high-involvement human resource practices in the innovative work behavior of employees, with the mediation of supportive work environment conditions. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses regression analysis to test the hypotheses in a sample of 198 Spanish firms. Findings – The results indicate that ability-enhancing and opportunity-enhancing human resource practices are positively related to innovative work behaviors with the mediation of two work environment variables: management support and coworkers support. This study discusses results and highlights limitations and future research directions. Originality/value – Previous researchers have identified employees as important sources of innovation, but systemic empirical research has not been fully applied to examine the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and employees' innovative work behavior.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martine J. H. Coun ◽  
Robin Edelbroek ◽  
Pascale Peters ◽  
Robert J. Blomme

Aim: The present study contributes to the conversation on remote (home) working, leadership, and innovation in times of COVID-19 by examining the mediating role of work-related flow in the relationship between empowering and directive leadership, on the one hand, and innovative work-behavior, on the other, and the moderating role of IT-enabled presence awareness in two lockdown periods during the pandemic.Method: We employed PLS-SEM analysis to analyze the perceptions, experiences, and behaviors of a group of employees (N = 257) regarding the study’s core variables during two phases of the COVID-19 pandemic (summer 2020 and autumn 2020).Results: In line with expectations, in the earlier phase of the pandemic, empowering leadership had both a positive direct and indirect relationship with innovative work-behavior via work-related flow, whereas directive leadership only had a negative direct relationship with innovative work-behavior. In the second phase, however, empowering leadership only had a positive indirect relationship with innovative work-behavior, running via work-related flow. Moreover, directive leadership was both directly and indirectly negatively related to innovative work-behavior, via work-related flow. In contrast to our expectations, IT-enabled presence awareness did not play a moderating role in these relationships in any phase.Discussion: Our findings underline the importance of empowerment in sustaining innovative work-behavior, particularly in intense and enduring remote work contexts, as this can amplify employees’ ability, motivation and opportunity to generate, share and implement novel ideas. In remote work contexts, empowering leadership can particularly foster innovation indirectly via work-related flow, which was also shown to be an increasingly important underlying mechanism across time periods. Directive leadership, in contrast, can reduce work-related flow and, therefore, hinder innovation. Our study did not find evidence for the moderating role of employees’ perceptions of IT-enabled presence awareness.Conclusion: We conclude that regardless of the IT-quality, the leadership style chosen plays an important role in innovative work-behavior in remote work-contexts, particularly in view of the divergent effects of empowering and directive leadership on work-related flow in enduring and intense remote work contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Namra Mubarak ◽  
Jabran Khan ◽  
Robina Yasmin ◽  
Atasya Osmadi

PurposeThrough the lens of social exchange theory, this study aims to assess the relationship between proactive personality and innovative work behavior by incorporating the mediating role of work engagement and moderating role of transformational leadership between proactive personality and work engagement.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 259 employees working in Pakistani small-medium enterprises (SMEs). The purposive sampling technique was used to collect data. For hypothesis testing, Preacher and Hayes process macro was employed.FindingsConfirmatory factor analysis verified the distinctiveness of the variables used in this study. The findings show that a proactive personality had a positive influence on innovative work behavior directly and indirectly through work engagement, and transformational leadership positively moderates the relationship between a proactive personality and work engagement in such a way that with high transformational leadership behavior relationship will be strengthened.Originality/valueThis study has addressed three research questions that have been left unanswered in the literature. The initial research question is “how proactive personality enhances innovative work behavior?” This study found that proactive personality enhanced innovative work behavior. The second research question is “what are the suggested mechanisms for proactive personality to promote innovative work behavior?” This study has proven that a proactive personality enhanced innovative work behavior through an important mediating mechanism, namely work engagement. Finally, the third question of the study is “does transformational leadership moderate the relationship between proactive personality and work engagement? The study shows that transformational leadership positively moderates between proactive personality and work engagement.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document