Empowering Leaders and Innovative Employees: Unraveling the Mediating Mechanisms of Role-Breadth Self-Efficacy and Harmonious Work Passion

Exploring and promoting employees' innovative work behavior (IWB) is still underexamined in this competitive hospitality industry. To fill this gap, this study investigates how empowering leadership influences IWB among hospitality employees. Drawing insights from Social cognitive theory and Self-determination theory, we examined the dual mediation of role-breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) and harmonious work passion (HWP) among 340 hotel employees in India using PLS-SEM. Results show that both RBSE and HWP function as partial mediators in the favorable relationship between empowering leadership and IWB. By empirically proving the concurrent function of cognitive and motivational mechanisms in transferring the influence of empowering leadership into employees' IWB, this study makes a valuable contribution to hospitality scholarship.