The driving mechanism of psychological capital on employees’ innovative behavior: the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating role of coaching leadership

Abstract

Employee innovative behavior is an important micro-level source of organizational competitiveness. Grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory, with the job demands–resources (JD–R) model specifying the complementary motivational process, this study examines how PsyCap is associated with innovative behavior and whether this association varies with coaching leadership. Survey data from knowledge workers in Chinese enterprises showed a positive association between PsyCap and innovative behavior. Work engagement partially mediated this association. Coaching leadership was positively associated with the strength of the work engagement–innovative behavior relationship and of the indirect association between PsyCap and innovative behavior through engagement. The conditional indirect effect was supported at medium and high, but not low, levels of coaching leadership. These findings position work engagement as a motivational state through which employees invest sustained energy and attention, and coaching leadership as a contextual condition associated with the conversion of psychological resources into innovative action.