No abstract

Purpose In the context of team's influence on its members, this paper aims to investigate the effects of team-member exchange (TMX) on members' innovative work behaviour (IWB). The current study presents a moderated mediation model and examines the mechanisms and conditions involved in TMX-IWB relationship. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research methodology was adopted where 156 engineering and management students (grouped into 33 teams) were given a task in the form of an assignment to be completed in three weeks’ timeframe. Post task, perceptions about TMX and IWB of members were captured using a questionnaire and the innovative output of each team was assessed using multi-rater technique. Findings Psychological empowerment fully mediates TMX’s effect on team member's IWB. Furthermore, the results indicate that creative self-efficacy moderates the mediated path from TMX to IWB via psychological empowerment. The mediating effect of psychological empowerment is stronger when creative self-efficacy of a team member is higher. Furthermore, the relation between group-level innovative behaviour and the team's innovative output has been established. Originality/value The current research has contributed to the limited literature on team performance and management. This paper has uniquely investigated psychological empowerment in the context of TMX and IWB. The paper has encapsulated the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the mediated effect of psychological empowerment on team members' innovation-oriented behaviour.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of empowering leadership (EL) on work attitudes [job satisfaction (JS) and organizational commitment (OCOM)]. The effects of EL on these work attitudes were also analysed in terms of the mediating effects of psychological empowerment (PE). Design/methodology/approach A survey research methodology was adopted where responses were collected on relevant measures of the constructs from 431 middle-level executives from 12 Indian organizations. Findings Results implied that EL enhanced the levels of JS and OCOM of employees. The results further indicated that EL was positively related to PE at the workplace. The findings also revealed that PE was positively related to these positive work attitudes. Moreover, strong indirect effects of EL were observed on these work attitudes through PE, implying that PE partially mediated the impact of between EL on JS and OCOM. Originality/value The findings of this study affirm the efficacy of EL and PE in predicting positive work attitudes in a different cultural milieu than the West –the Indian work context. Especially, by establishing a strong positive relationship between empowerment and JS, it contributes to the existing literature underlining inconsistent findings with regard to this relationship.

Purpose The negative links between psychological empowerment (PE) and perceived stress may be arguable when evaluated in Indian work settings characterized by socio-cultural values like dependence proneness and high power distance. To explore this possibility, the present study aimed to examine the links between PE at work and perceived stress in the Indian milieu. Potential moderating effects of gender, personality (generalized self-efficacy and Big-5 traits) and power distance on this relationship were also investigated. Design/methodology/approach An experiment with 2 (high PE/low PE) × 2 (male/female) between-subjects design was used on 120 employees from four commercialized banks. PE was manipulated by presenting a work scenario to each participant, where employees experience either high or low PE. Relevant scales were used to measure perceived stress, personality and power distance. Findings PE has a significant negative relationship with perceived stress, thus validating the effectiveness of PE in Indian work settings. Emotional stability and agreeableness are established as significant moderators which enhanced the negative links between PE and perceived stress. Originality/value The current research has uniquely contributed to the limited literature regarding the role of personality in empowerment and its outcomes. Furthermore, it has captured the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the PE-perceived stress link in Indian work-context.

Purpose As work-from-home policies were being implemented during Covid-19, organizations have been migrating their learning and development programs to digital platforms. This study aims to understand the role of employees’ perceptions about four key attributes of online learning platforms (OLPs), namely, online environment, ease of use, online content (OC) and online engagement anchors in their levels of work engagement (WE). Further, it also investigates how the personality attributes of the employees and financial incentives for online learning influence this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Using the snowball sampling technique, online questionnaires were distributed to about 350 employees in four IT firms in India who were working from home during the Covid-19 period. The total number of valid responses was 306 and consisted of software developers, technical leads, process specialists, testers and managers. The analysis was done using Python software (V.3.7.4) packages and Process Macro (pyprocessmacro V.1.0.8) developed for Python. Findings Perceived OLP features significantly influence employee WE. OC and ease of use are significant influencers of employee WE. The perception of OLP features indirectly affects WE through the learner’s personality characteristics. Moreover, the financial incentive to learn online shares a negative interaction effect with OLP features to influence WE. Originality/value The paper contributes to the existing literature on virtual knowledge management by identifying the driving factors that reinforce the acceptance of OLPs. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to link online learning management system key characteristics with employee outcome as engagement. Most of the previous work has ignored exploring such a relationship in an organizational setting.