As the business environment is rapidly changing, interest in the innovation of organizational members is accelerating. Therefore, this study investigated how individual-level resources, particularly self-leadership, affect workers’ innovative behavior. Many studies have emphasized that employee initiative can lead to job performance at the individual level and organizational performance improvement. Self-leadership is a spontaneous and an active behavior, or mindset, defined as the ability to lead an individual in challenging situations characterized by learned behaviors that can be augmented by training. It is of interest to many researchers and practitioners. Further, we tested the mediation of informal learning, another individual-level resource, in this relationship and the moderation of social capital, a social resource, in the mediation. We analyzed the responses of 551 employees of South Korean companies using Model 6 and 14 of PROCESS Macro. The results revealed that self-leadership positively influenced workers’ innovative behavior, and informal learning mediated this relationship. We also confirmed that social capital strengthened the positive mediating effect of informal learning. This study empirically verifies the role of self-leadership, informal learning, and social capital as the determinants of innovative behavior and expands the discussion on leadership by highlighting the significance of self-leadership as opposed to traditional leadership approaches.

Purpose: This study verifies whether the personal psychological factor of power distance disposition is perceived as conformity or obedience to the parties, triggers unethical pro-organisational behaviour (UPB) and is reinforced by hierarchy and market cultures.Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation model analysis was used to test the hypotheses, and Process macro was used to test the moderating effect rigorously. A survey was conducted from 15 August 2018 to 20 September 2018, and 565 questionnaires were collected for analysis.Findings/results: The effect of power distance orientation (PDO) on UPB was determined by deriving the regression coefficient with the control variable input in the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Power distance orientation had a significant positive effect on UPB, even after controlling the influence of demographic variables. Pro-organisational members do not refrain from unethical actions when carrying out the tasks assigned by the company. This causal relationship is strengthened when hierarchy and market cultures are reinforced.Practical implications: To instil ethical behaviour in employees, a company must continuously manage the organisational culture and atmosphere, as well as educate and train employees on the company’s code of ethics.Originality/value: This study contributes to the limited body of knowledge examining both PDO (i.e. individual psychological factor) and organisational culture (i.e. work environment factor) as factors inducing UPB.