Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the moderating role of psychological empowerment on the relationships between authentic leadership and innovative work behaviour, as well as transformational leadership and innovative work behaviour.Design/methodology/approachWe have applied the mixed-method research on the selected case study. The quantitative field study was conducted on a sample of 126 employees in a multinational technological company. A series of paired samplet-tests were followed by a hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses. The qualitative study consists of a content analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with four leaders.FindingsThe research provides further confirmation of the positive relationship between leadership and innovative work behaviour. Specifically, the results showed that psychological empowerment moderates the relationship between leadership (authentic as well as transformational leadership) and innovative work behaviour.Originality/valueThis paper contributed to leadership and innovation literature and provided insights in studying the boundary conditions on the relationship between authentic leadership, as well as transformational leadership, in stimulating innovative work behaviour through the moderating role of psychological empowerment. The added value is expanded by introducing the comparison of the two leadership theories.
Highlights
Innovation is a crucial factor for organisational success in today’s competitive and dynamic environment (Skerlavaj et al, 2019)
We focus on the theoretical background of innovation, innovative work behaviour, leadership, transformational leadership and authentic leadership as well as psychological empowerment
We claim that psychological empowerment will moderate the positive effect of authentic leadership on the level of innovative work behaviour, in particular, we propose that the stimulation to innovate comes from the inspiring nature of authentic leadership assumes a high level of follower psychological empowerment, which makes authentic leadership less effective for followers with low psychological empowerment
Summary
Innovation is a crucial factor for organisational success in today’s competitive and dynamic environment (Skerlavaj et al, 2019). The researchers identify leadership as one of the most important factors affecting creativity and innovativeness (Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009a). Gumusluoglu and Illsev (2009b) note that the interest in the impact of the transformational leadership on creativeness and innovativeness is growing. The increasing scholarly interest in innovative settings is perceived in authentic leadership, whereas the authenticity has become a “widespread emerging social trend” (Cha et al, 2019) and a “gold standard for leadership”. Innovation in the workplace is, next to the learning, crucial for employees, organizations and societies, and as such, presents the substantial part of EU’s agenda of globalization and knowledge-based societies.
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