Transformational leadership and innovative work behavior

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of transformational leadership on employee's innovative work behavior, and mediating role of motivation to learn, and the moderating role of task complexity and innovation climate on the link between transformational leadership on innovative work behavior. A questionnaire, designed as a self-reported survey, was distributed to 850 employees working in various firms in Pakistan. Results show that transformational leadership has a significant impact on employees' innovative work behavior and motivation to learn mediates transformational leadership-innovative work behavior link. The study further shows that task complexity and support for innovation moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and employees' innovative work behavior. Based on the premises of interactionist perspectives on individual innovation, this study integrates multi-level variables to investigate leaders' influences on followers' innovative work behavior. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on influence of transformational leadership on employees' innovative work behavior as well as the impact of both individual- and organizational-level variables. The close connection among transformational leadership, motivation to learn, and innovative work behavior suggests that evaluating, supporting and training transformational leadership traits among managers are important activities for innovativeness. If management wants to enhance innovative work behaviors among employees, they should pay particular attention to creating a climate that is supportive of innovation and encourage individuals to learn. Organizations should encourage employees to learn new knowledge and skills, and provide employees with opportunities to use their acquired knowledge and skills. The paper contributes to leadership and open innovation literatures and provides insights into how the practitioners can use an appropriate leadership style to enhance innovative work behavior among employees. The study adopts a distinct model comprising five different variables to investigate innovative work behavior from a multi-level perspective, i.e., motivation to learn and innovative work behavior at the individual level, task complexity at the unit level, and innovation climate and leadership at the organizational level. This integrated model of using predictors from multiple levels supports the theoretical assumptions that innovative work behavior results from the interaction of individual-, group- and organizational-level factors.