Team Psychological Resource as a Critical Enabler for Innovation and Knowledge Creation

Abstract

Previous research has highlighted that psychological capital, as a constructive psychological resource, contributes to organizational behaviors, such as innovative work behavior and knowledge creation, which are inseparable yet distinct concepts. However, these positive relationships have not been consistently observed. High levels of hope, optimism and self-efficacy, which are dimensions of psychological capital, may lead to a decline in performance. Therefore, we develop a framework to investigate the joint effect of team psychological capital and localization of human resources on innovative work behavior and knowledge creation. We empirically assess this framework using questionnaires, and multi-source data from multinational enterprises in China. The results indicate that team psychological capital has a gradually slowing positive effect on innovative work behavior, while simultaneously exhibiting an inverted-U-shaped effect on knowledge creation. Moreover, we further find that the localization of human resources positively moderates the relationship between psychological capital and innovative work behavior. This study contributes to insights into the effects of team psychological capital on innovative work behavior and knowledge creation while offering managers implications on how to align their psychological resources to develop innovative activities.