The Impact of Servant Leadership on Employees’ Innovative Work Behaviour-Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment

Change is the only constant phenomenon in this world, and organizations can bring it through innovation. This innovation ultimately leads to an organization’s competitive edge and sustainability. Every new idea primarily originates in the minds of individuals, and when it’s implemented successfully, it contributes to overall organizational innovation. Nurturing employees’ innovative work behavior (EIWB) is prudent for every organization looking to enhance its innovative outcomes. This research, at first, aimed to examine the influence of servant leadership (SL) at three distinctive levels of employees’ innovative work behavior (EIWB); namely, idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization. Then, we investigated the influence of SL on overall EIWB. Finally, employees’ Psychological Empowerment (PE) is assessed as a mediator through which SL exerts its influence on EIWB. Servant leadership in conjunction with Social Exchange theories were used to develop the conceptual model of this research. Cross-sectional data were collected from 283 entry-level officers working in different Power Sector Companies of Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed through Smart-PLS 3.2.8 software to analyze the hypothesized relationships. The findings of this research show that SL positively influences each stage of EIWB as well as EIWB at an integrated level. Employees’ Psychological Empowerment (PE) partially mediates the positive influence of SL on EIWB. This research is one of the pioneers to examine the influence of SL at different levels of EIWB. Further, investigating employees’ PE as mediating between the relationship of SL and EIWB is also a unique contribution of this research. Besides offering the theoretical and managerial implications, detailed discussion on the results is carried out. Lastly, the limitations of this study and potential avenues for future research are highlighted.