Decent Work and Innovative Work Behaviour: The Mediating Roles of Organisational Learning and Work Engagement

Abstract

The idea that innovations enable organisations to enjoy adaptive, competitive, and generative advantages has seen many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) add innovation policy to their national frameworks. However, most LMICs continue to experience economic stagnation and low productivity growth despite promulgating pro-innovation policies. Management and scholarly research on innovation remains marginal and highly fragmented in LMICs, amid calls for further theoretical and practical examinations of what could foster and sustain innovative work behaviour in such settings. Without adequately understanding innovative work behaviour, including the mechanisms and pathways to influence it, efforts to sustainably generate new sources of value remain constrained. Effectively unpacking what influences and sustains this complex behaviour demands an interrogation of the theories and paradigms that link individuals, organisational contexts, and processes. Hinged primarily on the social exchange theory and the resource-based view, the study developed and tested a conditional mediation model explaining the activation of innovative work behaviour with a focus on the central role of decent work. The study simultaneously examined multiple mediators to tease apart the relative effects of competing theoretical explanations on innovative work behaviour to inform theory and practice. A time lagged study design informed data collection from two probability samples (n1 = 151 and n2 = 102) situated in a multinational manufacturing firm. Employees self-reported using previously validated measures of decent work, work engagement, organisational learning, and innovative behaviour. The study used bifactor and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses to assess the quality of the four measurement models. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to test the mediation model. The study modelled the general factors for the decent work scale, Utrecht work engagement scale, and the innovative behaviour inventory; however, the organisational learning capability exhibited multidimensionality. All the four measures were invariant. Decent work had significant, positive relationships with organisational learning and work engagement. Organisational learning and work engagement were positively and significantly associated with innovative work behaviour. Work engagement and organisational learning mediated the effect of decent work on innovative work behaviour. The findings show that decent work facilitates organisational learning and fosters work engagement. Organisational learning and work engagement bolster innovative work behaviour. Furthermore, decent work promotes innovative work behaviour through enhancing organisational learning and work engagement. The results provide complementary insights into how decent work may transform into innovative work behavior. Leadership teams seeking to effectively harness the innovative capabilities resident in their organisations should develop and nurture enterprise-wide, healthy workplaces anchored on the tenets of decent work. The modelled capabilities are learnable, and hence developable. Theoretical and managerial implications and study limitations are discussed.