Driving Innovation in the Manufacturing Sector: The Role of Empowering Leadership, Perceived Organizational Support, and Knowledge Sharing on Innovative Work Behavior

Abstract

Background: In a competitive business environment, organizations are required to encourage innovative work behavior of employees through contextual factors such as perceived organizational support and empowering leadership. Objective: This study aims to examine the influence of these two variables on innovative work behavior, with psychological empowerment and knowledge sharing as mediators. Methods: Based on social exchange theory, the study used a quantitative survey approach on 305 employees of Company X, analyzed using Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM). Results: The results show that empowering leadership and perceived organizational support have a positive and significant effect on innovative work behavior. Knowledge sharing and psychological empowerment are proven to be partial mediators in the relationship between empowering leadership and perceived organizational support for innovative work behavior, with knowledge sharing as a more dominant mediator. Conclusion: These findings suggest that organizations design structured knowledge sharing programs as an innovation-oriented HR development strategy. The limitations of the study include the use of self-assessment questionnaires in which all variables are measured based on respondents' own perceptions which have the potential for common method bias and the context of one company that limits generalization. Further research can use more diverse data sources and expand the context of different industries.