Servant leadership, innovative work behavior and innovative organizational culture: the mediating role of perceived organizational support

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of servant leadership (SL) and innovative organizational culture (IOC) on employees' innovative work behavior (IWB). In addition, this paper attempts to examine the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 280 employees working in technopark companies located in Turkey, which require intensive IWB. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedure were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings – The findings suggest that SL, and IOC are significantly and positively related to employees' IWB. The results also show that SL and IOC stimulate employees' IWB through POS. Research limitations/implications – Because this study was carried out by employing a cross-sectional research design with data obtained from the same source, the inferences about the causality among the variables cannot be inferred. Practical implications – The empirical findings suggest that organizations should make efforts to promote SL and improve IOC in order to harvest IWB from their employees. Moreover, organizations and managers need to recognize the importance of the POS by employees, and therefore form an adequate working environment, create and utilize policies and procedures accordingly. Originality/value – This study suggests ways for organizations to enhance their innovativeness through IOC and SL applications in pursue of harvesting employees' IWB using POS by employees as mediator. This study is also original, in that no previous studies have investigated the mediating role of POS in the relationship between IOC, SL and IWB. 研究目的 – 本研究旨在探討僕人式領導和創新組織文化對僱員的創新工作行為的影響; 研究亦擬探討就上述有關的影響和關聯而言、組織支持感所扮演的調節角色。 研究設計/方法/理念 – 研究的數據取自在土耳其的科技園區裡工作的280名僱員 (在科技園區工作，僱員須具備強大的創新工作行為) 。研究採用結構方程模型和拔靴法程式去測試假設的關聯。 研究結果 – 研究結果間接表明了僕人式領導和創新組織文化與僱員創新工作行為之間的關聯是正相關的，而且，這相關性頗為顯著。研究結果亦顯示，僕人式領導和創新組織文化均會透過組織支持感、促進僱員的創新工作行為。 研究的局限/啟示 – 由於研究採用橫斷研究設計，而使用的數據又取自同一來源，故變數間的因果關係是無法推斷的。 實務方面的啟示 – 本研究之經驗結果建議組織應鼓勵推行僕人式領導，亦應努力提昇創新組織文化，以能取得僱員創新工作行為所帶來的成效。而且，組織和管理階層必須明白使僱員感受到組織的支持是很重要的，因此，組織和主管須創造一個良好的工作環境，並制訂適當的政策和處理各種事宜的程式，以能提高組織支持感。 研究的原創性/價值 – 本研究為組織提供了增強創新能力的建議，方法是透過促進創新組織文化和採用僕人式領導，並利用僱員組織支持感的調節作用，以取得僱員創新工作行為所帶來的成效。另外，本研究是獨創的，這是因為從前沒有研究、去探討在創新組織文化和僕人式領導與創新工作行為之間的關聯上、組織支持感所扮演的調節角色。

Keywords

• Servant leadership
• Innovative behaviour
• Organizational culture
• Organizational support
• Work behaviour
• 僕人式領導