Strategic Leadership and Employee Innovative Work Behavior:The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment and the Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support

Abstract

Organizations are more and more reliant on innovation to be both adaptable and competitive, as well as perform well in the long run. However, if employees do not have the authority, confidence, or backing of the organization to suggest and implement new ideas, then they may be reluctant to do so. This manuscript elaborates on the conceptual model that strategic leadership can foster employee innovative work behavior by psychological empowerment, and that perceived organizational support can serve as a bridge between psychological empowerment and innovative work behavior. The paper draws on strategic leadership literature, psychological empowerment literature, social exchange literature and organizational support literature to suggest that leaders who provide direction, encourage learning, allocate resources, and involve employees in decision-making can boost employees' perceived meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. The psychological states are supposed to facilitate idea generation, idea promotion and idea implementation. Perceived organizational support is suggested as a boundary condition because employees may feel more inclined to behave in ways that align with their empowered identity when they feel that their work is valued and that they are cared for by the organization. The manuscript presents testable hypotheses and a research design in quantitative terms for service and manufacturing organizations. It also reviews theoretical contributions, implications for management, limitations and future research directions. It is a conceptual and proposed empirical study and therefore no survey results or statistics are fabricated or made up.

key words : strategic leadership, innovative work behavior, psychological empowerment, perceived organizational support, management sciences, and employee innovation.