Understanding the organizational learning culture—Innovative behavior relation in local government: The roles of knowledge sharing and job autonomy

Abstract

Drawing from research on organizational learning culture, knowledge sharing (KS), and job characteristics theory, this study investigates the mediating role of KS in the link between organizational learning culture (OLC) and employee's innovative behavior (IB), as well as how this mediating effect might be moderated by job autonomy (JA). Data captured from 1420 public employees of 33 local governments in South Korea shows that OLC affects employees' IB, while the effect size is reduced when controlling for the role of KS. Further, JA moderates the positive relationship between KS and IB, such that the relationship becomes invigorated at higher levels of JA. The findings also reveal that the indirect effect of OLC on IB through KS is more pronounced at higher levels of JA, which offers evidence of moderated mediation. We discuss the significant implications of our findings for future research and practice.

Fostering employee innovation: Linking person–organization fit to innovative behavior through knowledge sharing and reward perception

“…In addition, we tried to confirm the mediating effect of KS between POF and IB, the moderating effect of RP between POF and KS, and the indirect effect between POF and IB through KS controlled by the level of recognition of reward. Among previous studies, those examining the POF–KS–IB relationship are very rare, and many studies focused on separately approaching the relationships between POF and KS and between KS and IB (e.g., Wahyudi, 2019), or the direct or indirect relationships between KS and IB (e.g., Lee & Jin, 2022; Pian et al, 2019; Yu et al, 2013). The present study is an attempt to compensate for the lack of empirical research on the relationship between POF and IB.…”

“…Innovation is the development and implementation of new ideas (Scott & Bruce, 1994), and IB represents individual‐level efforts by employees to pursue innovation (Lee & Jin, 2022). Specifically, IB can be understood as an attempt to recognize the need for changes in the process of employees performing their tasks and creating and introducing new ideas.…”

“…Such knowledge sharing (KS) can be understood as a process that benefits not only individual employees but also organizations from a consequential perspective. KS is also recognized as an extra‐role behavior that requires additional effort (Ipe, 2003; Lee & Jin, 2022) and a prosocial behavior implemented based on an individual employee's voluntary will (Jo & Joo, 2011; Lee & Jin, 2022; Yu & Chu, 2007).…”

“…From various perspectives, several previous studies have attempted to examine the relationship between variables related to the organizational environment and KS. Among them, mainstream research starts with the assumption that KS is generally caused by informal factors, so it is greatly affected by the organization's atmosphere or work environment (Lee & Jin, 2022). The relationship between POF and KS can be understood in the same context.…”

“…IB refers to acts of proposing creative ideas and creating action plans with which to actualize them (Van de Ven, 1986) and is recognized as an important variable related to organizational change and performance. While various studies have discussed ways of strengthening the effect of KS on IB by investigating the relationship between KS and IB (e.g., Lee & Jin, 2022;Pian et al, 2019;Yu et al, 2013), they have focused on the direct or indirect relationship between preceding variables and IB by immersing themselves in the perspective of IB, the outcome variable, lacking more specific discussion on how to strengthen IB by promoting KS-the leading variable of IB-from a more fundamental perspective. In addition, many previous studies are fragmented attempts to discern the relationship between various organizational environment variables and KS (e.g., Lee & Jin, 2022;Taylor & Wright, 2004;Tuan, 2016), KS and IB (e.g., Yu et al, 2013;Cohen & Levinthal, 1990;Cummings, 2004;Harlow, 2008;Hu et al, 2009;Mom et al, 2007;Yang & Wu, 2008), so even if the former relationship is proven, it does not naturally connect to the latter.…”