Inclusive leadership and innovative work behavior: The role of psychological empowerment

Abstract

In this article, we explored the relationship between inclusive leadership and innovative work behavior with the mediating role of psychological empowerment. We collected data from employees in the information technology and cargo sectors within the United Kingdom and Canada. The results revealed that inclusive leadership was positively related to innovative work behavior both directly and indirectly through psychological empowerment. Cognitive evaluation theory was used to support the findings. Implications of the study were discussed.

Influence of Transformational Leadership on Employees’ Innovative Work Behavior in Sustainable Organizations: Test of Mediation and Moderation Processes

“…Innovative work behavior (IWB) is an important factor that management scholars need to consider, significantly, in order to gain a competitive advantage [4] and establish organizational sustainability. Apart from research and development, the organizations operating in the highly competitive business environment also need innovative work behavior in other domains of businesses [5][6][7], in order to discover new ways of satisfying customer demands [8][9][10], and retain their competitive position in the business world [11]. Since the organizations rely on different actors to stimulate innovative work behavior [4], the organizational leaders are the most prominent actors who can foster innovative work behavior at the workplace, and thus bring new changes to an elusive situation [12][13][14][15].…”

“…The current economic and business changes in East Asia require business leaders to use the transformational leadership (TL) style for encouraging innovative work behavior among their employees in order to achieve sustainable economic growth [18,19]. Transformational leadership has captured the attention of leading researchers, who have investigated the antecedents of innovative behavior in the existing stream of literature on innovative work behavior [10,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Transformation leadership refers to the leaders who develop their followers' potential for work through inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and empowerment, which might help develop innovative work behavior [28][29][30].…”

Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Support in Inclusive Leadership's Effect on Innovative Work Behavior

“…Innovative work behavior includes non-routine behaviors such as idea generation, idea promotion and idea realization (Jannes, 2003). In order for employees to exhibit innovative business behaviors, the leader's role in the innovation process and organizational support is needed Javed et al, 2018a). According to West and Rickards (1999), creative and innovative behaviors need to be supported by both personal qualities and a combination of work environment factors (West and Rickards, 1999).…”

“…Additionally, inclusive leaders are able to provide resources such as information, time and support for innovative behavior (Reiter-Palmon and Illies, 2004). In general, with the contribution of inclusive leaders to employees Hollander, 2012), employees feel more dedicated to their leaders, which leads to innovative work behavior (Javed et al, 2018a). The positive effect of inclusive leadership on innovative work behavior is seen in the literature (Wang et al, 2019;Ye et al, 2019;Javed et al, 2018a;Javed et al, 2018b;Choi et al, 2015).…”

“…According to Hollander (2012), inclusive leaders are those who are open to communication with their employees. According to Javed et al (2018a), the supportive structure of inclusive leaders and their inclusive qualifications contribute to employees, and in response to this contribution, the employees are obliged to respond to both their leaders and their organizations. According to Seibert et al (2011), the internal motivation of employees should be increased for innovative work behavior.…”