scholarly journals Designing innovative jobs: a fuzzy-set configurational analysis of job characteristics

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Cangialosi ◽  
Adalgisa Battistelli ◽  
Carlo Odoardi

PurposeHow to design jobs to support innovation is an issue that has received plenty of consideration over the past years. Building on the job characteristics model, the present study is set up to identify configurations of perceived job characteristics for innovation.Design/methodology/approachBy adopting a fuzzy-set configurational approach (fsQCA), the research question is addressed through a two-wave self-report survey of 199 employees of an Italian manufacturing company.FindingsResults reveal four compatible configurations of job characteristics leading to high levels of innovative work behavior and two for low levels.Practical implicationsThe results offer guidance for managers and organizations that aim to strengthen employee-driven innovation by offering different recipes of job design to maximize the chance of boosting innovative behaviors among their workers.Originality/valueThis research is one of the first to empirically test the relation of job characteristics for innovative behavior using a configurational approach. By doing so it contributes to the literature by advancing the notion that innovative endeavors are determined by the holistic effects of different interdependent configurations of job characteristics.

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Kmieciak

PurposeAlthough employees' innovative work behaviors are crucial for innovativeness and the success of modern organization, the impact of individual unlearning and critical reflection on innovative work behaviors is underresearched. This study's goal is to empirically examine relationships between job characteristics, critical reflection, unlearning and innovative work behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses survey data from 252 Polish employees and the partial least squares method.FindingsThe results indicated that, among three considered job characteristics, only problem-solving demands were related to critical reflection. This study also shows that critical reflection is both direct and indirect, through individual unlearning, related to both idea generation and idea realization. However, nonmanagers have stronger relationships between unlearning and innovative work behaviors than do managers, while managers have stronger relationships between critical reflection and innovative work behaviors.Practical implicationsResults of this study may be used by human resource development managers to improve employees' innovative work behavior.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the limited empirical research on the role of critical reflection and individual unlearning for innovative work behavior. This study also explores which job characteristic affects critical reflection.


2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (7) ◽  
pp. 1147-1170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arpana Rai ◽  
Upasna Agarwal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of workplace bullying on innovative work behavior and neglect with defensive silence as a mediator. The study further examines if the presence of friendship networks in the workplace can weaken the negative impact of workplace bullying. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through self-report questionnaires from 835 full-time Indian managerial employees working in different Indian organizations. Findings Results revealed that workplace bullying negatively related to innovative work behavior and positively related to neglect. Defensive silence mediated bullying–outcomes relationships and effects of workplace bullying on proposed outcomes were weaker in the presence of high workplace friendship. Research limitations/implications A cross-sectional design and use of self-reported questionnaire data are few limitations of this study. Originality/value The study extended the current research stream of workplace bullying to one of the underrepresented developing Asian countries, India. The study also contributes in terms of its sample characteristics as it covers managerial employees working across different organizations.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Xie ◽  
Soo Jeoung Han ◽  
Michael Beyerlein ◽  
Jiacheng Lu ◽  
Lillian Vukin ◽  
...  

Purpose This paper aims to conduct two studies to investigate shared leadership and team creativity (TC) in leaderless short-term project teams (STPTs). Design/methodology/approach To answer the research question, this paper used a multi-level mixed-methods design. This paper analyzed video recordings, transcripts of STPTs’ collaboration and self-report surveys from an international engineering competition. In Study 1, this paper attempted to connect relation-oriented shared leadership (ROSL) and task-oriented shared leadership (TOSL) with TC by coding video recordings. In Study 2, this paper further investigated the proposed positive relationship between shared leadership and TC by surveying a sample of 166 students in 51 teams. Findings In Study 1, this paper found that shared leadership covaries with TC following a similar behavioral pattern. In Study 2, multi-level structural equation modeling results suggested that both TOSL and ROSL are positively correlated with TC. Originality/value In this mixed-methods multi-level research, this paper found that when the team’s shared leadership increases, their TC activity becomes frequent. This paper confirmed the qualitative finding by quantitatively investigated the relationship between shared leadership and creativity at the team level.


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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 373-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadar Nurjaman ◽  
M Sandi Marta ◽  
Anis Eliyana ◽  
Dewi Kurniasari ◽  
Dedeh Kurniasari

Purpose of study: This study examined the usefulness of job characteristics as a technique designed to enhance the effect of proactive behavior and innovate work behavior. Methodology: A field study was conducted with a randomly selected sample of company 145 supervisors of Sharia Bank at West Java Indonesia. This research was used as a quantitative approach to analyze and answer all research questions. And then, hypotheses for direct and moderator effects are tested using hierarchical regression analysis with SPSS as an analysis tool. Result: Results presented that there is a relation between proactive behavior and innovative work behavior. Furthermore, jobs characteristic strengthens the relationship between proactive behavior and innovative work behavior in Sharia Bank. Implications: The strategy of job design utilization with job characteristics can trigger people’s innovation behavior who already have self-initiative and this strategy will succeed in Islamic banks that have employees with high initiative. Novelty/originality: The novelty of this study is the use of job characteristics in strengthening the relationship between proactive behavior and IWB which is very rarely done in banking, especially in Sharia Banking.


Author(s):  
Brianita Riga Pratiwi ◽  
Alice Salendu

Innovative work behavior is one of the keys to trust and success for organizations. In this era, how to form employees is a challenge and important for innovative organizations to see the factors that cause innovative behavior in their employees. This study involved three variables, namely openness to experience, ambidextrous organizational culture, and innovative work behavior. By using 3 measuring instruments, namely The Big Five Personality Inventory (BFI), Innovation Behavior Scale, and Ambidextreus Organizational Scale, as many as 127 respondents were obtained using the bold self-report method. Researchers examined the moderating role of ambidextrous organizational culture as analyzed by the PROCESS statistical technique developed by Hayes. The results showed a positive relationship between OTE and ambidextrous organizational culture was proven to be a significant predictor of employee innovative work behavior. F = 25.1475, p < .001, R2 = .384. From these results, it can be calculated that 38.4% variants of the two predictions have a significant effect on innovative work behavior. However, through the analysis it is also known that there is no significant interaction between the ambidextrous organizational culture variables, thus the the first hypothesis is accepted but not the second hypothesis. The result of this research can help companies to identify openness traits of the prospective employees.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadi Youssef Bou Reslan ◽  
Zanete Garanti ◽  
Okechukwu Lawrence Emeagwali

PurposeThis study aims to peruse the underlying effect of servant leadership (SL) on innovative work behavior (IWB) and employee knowledge sharing behavior (KSB), directly and through the mediating effect of job autonomy (JA), by using autonomous psychological needs of self-determination theory and embracing Hofstede's framework in information and telecommunication technology (ICT) companies in Latvia.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative analysis of data from 271 employees and managers in Latvian ICT companies was used by applying structural equation modeling.FindingsThe result discloses that SL can promote IWB and KSB directly and through mediating effects of JA.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is constricted by geography and sample data representation from a specific sector. Hence, future studies can determine the gender effects, carry out more preventive measures to avoid common method bias between constructs, measure antecedents and the mediator before outcomes and examine JA as a moderator.Practical implicationsThe findings demonstrate that the Latvian ICT sector should recruit managers with SL potentials, train and equip managers with the required resources to implement SL practices properly and integrate JA across the organization to increase the manifestation of IWB and KSB.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to examine JA as the underlying process through which SL’s effects on IWB and KSB are explained in an individualistic country.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuan Trong Luu

Purpose The ongoing improvement of hospitality services stems from innovative behavior among employees. This study aims to investigate how and when human resource (HR) flexibility promotes hospitality employees’ innovative work behavior. Design/methodology/approach The data were garnered from 438 employees and 67 managers from 19 hotels operating in Vietnam. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings The positive association was observed between HR flexibility and innovative work behavior. Harmonious passion functioned as a mediator for such a relationship. While promotion focus was found to positively interact with HR flexibility to predict employee harmonious passion, prevention focus demonstrated an attenuating effect on the association between HR flexibility and harmonious passion. Practical implications The findings suggest that hospitality organizations can promote innovative work behavior among employees through building skill and behavioral flexibility, as well as flexibility in HR practices. Hospitality organizations should also realize the role of harmonious passion as a mechanism that can channel HR flexibility into innovative work behavior and the interactive effect of promotion focus and HR flexibility on fostering harmonious passion and, in turn, innovative work behavior. Originality/value This inquiry advances the strand of research on the HR management-innovative behavior linkage by offering insights into how and when HR flexibility promotes innovative work behavior among hotel employees.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Yu Logacheva ◽  
Maria S. Plakhotnik

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of humor work climate on innovative work behavior of back-office employees in the banking industry in Russia. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected via an online survey that included scales to measure humor climate and innovative work behavior. The survey was distributed electronically among employees of one department of a bank. The sample included 104 back-office employees (response rate 60.4%). Correlation and regression analyses were used. Findings The results indicate that humor climate fosters employee innovative work behavior. Positive humor contributes to innovative work behavior more than remaining humor climate dimensions (i.e. negative humor, outgroup humor and supervisory support). Only position type (managers vs non-managers), and not gender, education and job tenure, was found to have a significant impact on employee perceptions of humor climate and innovative work behavior exhibition. Originality/value This study adds to the limited empirical evidence on the links between humor and innovative work behavior, especially at a group level. This study focused on humor climate as a multidimensional construct, whereas previous research mostly explored positive forms of humor in relation to different social aspects of the organization. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is first to use a validated scale to explore connections between innovative work behavior and humor climate.


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