Stimulation of innovative behavior through the inclusive leaders and engaged workers
Abstract
Based on social exchange theory, this research introduced a model to understand factors that contribute towards inclusive leadership (IL) and its effect on innovative work behavior (IWB) with employee engagement (EE) as a mediator. Although the connection between IL and IWB is previously established. However, few studies have tested the potential mediation effect of EE particularly in the IT sector. Therefore, this investigation provides new insights as to how IL stimulates the innovation through the meditating impact of EE. Data collected through questionnaire were then analyzed through structural equation modeling. 116 participants have provided the data for this study. We found a positive association of IL with IWB, while the mediating effect of EE was also empirically established. This study is novel because it explained how IL can persuade their subordinates to exhibit positive behavioral outcome (i.e. IWB). Furthermore, the current study also might help the policymakers to devise effective leadership training programs so that their managers may adopt IL style and make the employees more engaged and innovative.
Keyword : inclusive leadership, employee engagement, innovative work behavior, IT sector, creativity
How to Cite
Mansoor, A., Abdul Wahab, S., & Jahan, S. (2021). Stimulation of innovative behavior through the inclusive leaders and engaged workers. Business: Theory and Practice, 22(2), 249-255. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2021.13363
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). Guilford Publications. https://books.google.com.my/books?id=Q61ECgAAQBAJ
Lisbona, A., Palaci, F., Salanova, M., & Frese, M. (2018). The effects of work engagement and self-efficacy on personal initiative and performance. Psicothema, 30(1), 89–96.
Mansoor, A., Farrukh, M., Wu, Y., & Abdul Wahab, S. (2020). Does inclusive leadership incite innovative work behavior? Human Systems Management, 40(1), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.3233/HSM-200972
Miller, L., & Miller, A. F. (2020). Innovative work behavior through high-quality leadership. International Journal of Innovation Science, 12(2), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIS-04-2019-0042
Nazir, O., & Islam, J. U. (2017). Enhancing organizational commitment and employee performance through employee engagement. South Asian Journal of Business Studies, 6(1), 98–114. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAJBS-04-2016-0036
Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: the effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941–966. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.413
Nitzl, C., Roldan, J. L., & Cepeda, G. (2016). Mediation analysis in partial least squares path modeling. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 116(9), 1849–1864. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-07-2015-0302
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471
Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1998). Following the leader in R&D: the joint effect of subordinate problem-solving style and leader-member relations on innovative behavior. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 45(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1109/17.658656
Uhl-Bien, M. (2006). Relational Leadership Theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 654–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.007
Wang, Y., Yang, Y., Wang, Y., Su, D., Li, S., Zhang, T., & Li, H. (2019). The mediating role of inclusive leadership: Work engagement and innovative behaviour among Chinese head nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(4), 688–696. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12754
Younas, A., Wang, D., Javed, B., & Konte, A. G. (2020). Inclusive leadership and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. In Proceedings of the 2020 4th International Conference on Management Engineering, Software Engineering and Service Sciences (pp. 169–173). https://doi.org/10.1145/3380625.3380652
Zeng, H., Zhao, L., & Zhao, Y. (2020). Inclusive leadership and taking-charge behavior: roles of psychological safety and thriving at work. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00062
Zheng, Y., Graham, L., Epitropaki, O., & Snape, E. (2020). Service leadership, work engagement, and service performance: the moderating role of leader skills. Group & Organization Management, 45(1), 43–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601119851978
Al-Ajlouni, M. I. (2020). Can high-performance work systems (HPWS) promote organisational innovation? Employee perspective-taking, engagement and creativity in a moderated mediation model. Employee Relations: The International Journal, 43(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2019-0369
Amin, M., Till, A., & McKimm, J. (2018). Inclusive and person-centred leadership: creating a culture that involves everyone. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 79(7), 402–407. https://doi.org/10.12968/hmed.2018.79.7.402
Ashikali, T., Groeneveld, S., & Kuipers, B. (2020). The role of inclusive leadership in supporting an inclusive climate in diverse public sector teams. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 41(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X19899722
Azim, M. T., Fan, L., Uddin, M. A., Abdul Kader Jilani, M. M., & Begum, S. (2019). Linking transformational leadership with employees’ engagement in the creative process. Management Research Review, 42(7), 837–858. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-08-2018-0286
Bakker, A. B., & Albrecht, S. (2018). Work engagement: current trends. Career Development International, 23(1), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-11-2017-0207
Carmeli, A., Reiter-Palmon, R., & Ziv, E. (2010). Inclusive leadership and employee involvement in creative tasks in the workplace: the mediating role of psychological safety. Creativity Research Journal, 22(3), 250–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2010.504654
Cenkci, A. T., Bircan, T., & Zimmerman, J. (2020). Inclusive leadership and work engagement: the mediating role of procedural justice. Management Research Review, 44(1). https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-03-2020-0146
Chen, H., Richard, O. C., Dorian Boncoeur, O., & Ford, D. L. (2020). Work engagement, emotional exhaustion, and counterproductive work behavior. Journal of Business Research, 114, 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.03.025
Choi, S. B., Tran, T. B. H., & Park, B. Il. (2015). Inclusive leadership and work engagement: mediating roles of affective organizational commitment and creativity. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 43(6), 931–943. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2015.43.6.931
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312
Hair, J. F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., & Gudergan, S. P. (2017). Advanced issues in partial least squares structural equation modeling. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_15-1
Hakimian, F., Farid, H., Ismail, M. N., & Nair, P. K. (2016). Importance of commitment in encouraging employees’ innovative behaviour. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 8(1), 70–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJBA-06-2015-0054
Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
Hollander, E. (2012). Inclusive leadership: The essential leader-follower relationship. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203809914
Hughes, D. J., Lee, A., Tian, A. W., Newman, A., & Legood, A. (2018). Leadership, creativity, and innovation: A critical review and practical recommendations. Leadership Quarterly, 29(5), 549–569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.03.001
Janssen, O. (2000). Job demands, perceptions of effort-reward fairness and innovative work behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 73(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317900167038
Javed, B., Abdullah, I., Zaffar, M. A., Haque, A. ul, & Rubab, U. (2019). Inclusive leadership and innovative work behavior: The role of psychological empowerment. Journal of Management & Organization, 25(04), 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2018.50
Javed, B., Naqvi, S. M. M. R., Khan, A. K., Arjoon, S., & Tayyeb, H. H. (2017). Impact of inclusive leadership on innovative work behavior: The role of psychological safety. Journal of Management & Organization, 23(3), 472. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.17
Karatepe, O. M., & Olugbade, O. A. (2016). The mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between high-performance work practices and job outcomes of employees in Nigeria. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(10), 2350–2371. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-03-2015-0145
Kessel, M., Hannemann-Weber, H., & Kratzer, J. (2012). Innovative work behavior in healthcare: The benefit of operational guidelines in the treatment of rare diseases. Health Policy, 105(2–3), 146–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2012.02.010
Khan, M. A., Ismail, F. B., Hussain, A., & Alghazali, B. (2020). The interplay of leadership styles, innovative work behavior, organizational culture, and organizational citizenship behavior. SAGE Open, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019898264
Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). Guilford Publications. https://books.google.com.my/books?id=Q61ECgAAQBAJ
Lisbona, A., Palaci, F., Salanova, M., & Frese, M. (2018). The effects of work engagement and self-efficacy on personal initiative and performance. Psicothema, 30(1), 89–96.
Mansoor, A., Farrukh, M., Wu, Y., & Abdul Wahab, S. (2020). Does inclusive leadership incite innovative work behavior? Human Systems Management, 40(1), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.3233/HSM-200972
Miller, L., & Miller, A. F. (2020). Innovative work behavior through high-quality leadership. International Journal of Innovation Science, 12(2), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIS-04-2019-0042
Nazir, O., & Islam, J. U. (2017). Enhancing organizational commitment and employee performance through employee engagement. South Asian Journal of Business Studies, 6(1), 98–114. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAJBS-04-2016-0036
Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: the effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941–966. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.413
Nitzl, C., Roldan, J. L., & Cepeda, G. (2016). Mediation analysis in partial least squares path modeling. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 116(9), 1849–1864. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-07-2015-0302
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471
Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1998). Following the leader in R&D: the joint effect of subordinate problem-solving style and leader-member relations on innovative behavior. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 45(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1109/17.658656
Uhl-Bien, M. (2006). Relational Leadership Theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 654–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.007
Wang, Y., Yang, Y., Wang, Y., Su, D., Li, S., Zhang, T., & Li, H. (2019). The mediating role of inclusive leadership: Work engagement and innovative behaviour among Chinese head nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(4), 688–696. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12754
Younas, A., Wang, D., Javed, B., & Konte, A. G. (2020). Inclusive leadership and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. In Proceedings of the 2020 4th International Conference on Management Engineering, Software Engineering and Service Sciences (pp. 169–173). https://doi.org/10.1145/3380625.3380652
Zeng, H., Zhao, L., & Zhao, Y. (2020). Inclusive leadership and taking-charge behavior: roles of psychological safety and thriving at work. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00062
Zheng, Y., Graham, L., Epitropaki, O., & Snape, E. (2020). Service leadership, work engagement, and service performance: the moderating role of leader skills. Group & Organization Management, 45(1), 43–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601119851978