A Study on Inclusive Leadership, Innovative Behavior, and Perceived Organizational Support in the Service Sector in Malaysia: A Mediator Approach

Anantha Raj A. Arokiasamy, Quynh Le Hua Xuan, Khanh-Linh Nguyen, Hoa Thi Nhu Nguyen

Abstract

Many research works have been done on leadership and how positive leadership can nurture employees' innovative behavior. However, few studies have been done on the link between inclusive leadership and employees' innovative behavior. The research goals of this study are to test the path of perceived organizational support (POS) as a process to investigate how inclusive leadership could affect the innovative behavior of employees in a workplace setup and test POS as a mediator in the relationship between leadership and innovative behavior. The theoretical model designed for this study needed data from varied industries. Therefore, we surveyed almost 15 Malaysian companies from different industries. Data analysis with the assistance of the theoretical model revealed that inclusive leadership has positive effects on employees' innovative behavior in an organizational environment and POS. The study further shows that POS and employees' innovative behavior are positively related. POS acts as a mediator in building the relationship between inclusive leadership in any organizational environment and employee innovative behavior. Therefore, managers should demonstrate inclusive leadership and perceived organizational support to cultivate the full potential of innovative behavior to promote employee productivity/performance. Most of the literature on inclusive leadership in the service sector is theoretical. Furthermore, POS in the service sector is based on anecdotal perspectives. To this end, this paper is novel, as it is one of few studies to empirically investigate inclusive leadership and innovative behavior via POS in a non-western service sector context.

 

Keywords: perceived organizational support, inclusive leadership, innovative behavior, service sector, Malaysia.


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