Do Transformational Leadership and Innovative Climate Always Enhance Employees’ Innovative Behavior? Focusing on the Moderated Mediating Role of Innovative Climate on Change-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Continuous improvement of administrative quality requires public organizations to adapt and embrace change. In this context, change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has garnered attention because it enables exploring the micro components of organizational change rather than focusing on large-scale structural changes, underscoring the critical role of frontline employees and management in driving such continuous improvement. While previous studies have identified transformational leadership and innovative climate as key influencing factors for innovative behaviors like change-oriented OCB, the nuanced interactions between these elements have been insufficiently explored. To address this research gap, this study uses pooled cross-sectional data from Korean public employees to examine the moderated mediation effect of innovative climate on the relationship between transformational leadership and change-oriented OCB, with role conflict and ambiguity as mediators. The findings reveal that innovative climate positively moderates the impact of transformational leadership on change-oriented OCB. However, this positive effect of transformational leadership can diminish or even turn negative in a low-innovation climate. These results suggest that innovative contexts within an organization do not always enhance change-oriented OCB, providing valuable insights for scholars and practitioners.