The moderating effect of transformational and transactional leadership to the relationship of selfleadership strategies on innovative work behaviors among engineers

Abstract

Innovative work behavior has gained considerable attention in the organizational behavior literature. In the literature, factors that can give influence to employee innovative work behavior are discussed by prominent theoretical theory such as Diffusion Innovation Theory. However, research on an integrated framework that covers personal predictors of innovative work behavior is still limited specifically in Malaysia. This research incorporated the components of an individual’s behavioral (behavior-focused), cognitive (constructive thought pattern and natural reward) and physiological (physical vitality) approach as self-leadership strategies that serve as predictors of innovative work behavior. Therefore, the research investigated the effect of self-leadership strategies on innovative work behavior. In addition, it also extended the existing innovative work behavior theoretical model by investigating transformational and transactional leadership as the moderator in the relationship between self-leadership strategies and innovative work behavior. This research utilized quantitative approach where questionnaires were distributed to 745 manufacturing engineers in Malaysia as the research population. 485 completed questionnaires were usable for data analysis. IBM Statistical Package for Social Science 19 statistical program was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that behavior-focused, constructive thought pattern, natural reward and physiological strategies significantly affected innovative work behavior. In terms of moderation effect, only transformational leadership moderated the relationship between each self-leadership strategy with innovative work behavior. Overall, this research expanded the Diffusion Innovation Theory by incorporating self-leadership strategies as the personal component and studied the role of transformational and transactional leadership as the moderator for innovative work behavior. The findings of the study may help organizations to increase employees’ innovative work behavior by improving employees’ self-leadership strategies and applying transformational leadership style at the workplace.