Abstract
Aim: Scholarly and societal debates focus on how to ensure innovative behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of earlier leadership choices during the initial phases of the pandemic in the long-term. The present study contributes to the debate on remote (home) working, leadership, and innovation in times of COVID-19 by examining the mediating role of work-related flow in the relationship between empowering and directive leadership and innovative work behavior and the moderating role of IT-enabled presence awareness in two lockdown periods during the COVID-pandemic.
Theoretical/Research framework: Based on combined insights from the literature on empowering and directive leadership, work-related flow, and innovative work behavior and literature on remote (home) working and IT-enabled presence awareness, we developed a set of hypotheses that both focused on the relationships between the study’s core variables and the changes herein over time.
Method: We employed PLS-SEM analysis to analyze the perceptions, experiences and behaviors of a group of employees (N= 257) regarding the study’s core variables during two phases of the COVID-19 pandemic (summer 2020 and autumn 2020) which allowed us to examine the relationships between the study’s core variables and the role of the duration and intensity of the remote (home) work practice in which routines, cognition and behavior towards homeworking may have been changed.
Findings: In line with expectations, in the earlier phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, empowering leadership had both a direct and indirect positive relationship with innovative work behavior via work-related flow, whereas directive leadership only had a direct negative relationship with innovative work behavior. In the second phase, however, empowering leadership only had an indirect positive relationship with innovation, running via work-related flow. Moreover, directive leader was both directly and indirectly related to innovation, via work-related flow. In contrast to our expectations, IT-enabled presence awareness did not play a moderating role in these relationships.
Conclusion and discussion: Our findings underline the importance of empowerment in sustaining innovative work behavior, particularly in intense and enduring remote work contexts, as this amplifies employees’ ability, motivation, and opportunity to generate, share and implement novel ideas. In remote work contexts, empowering leadership can particularly foster innovation indirectly via work-related flow, and increasingly important underlying mechanism over time. Directive leadership, in contrast, can reduce work-related flow and, therefore, in the longer run, hinder innovation. Whereas leadership plays an important role in remote work-contexts, our study did not find evidence for the role of employees’ perceptions of IT-enabled presence awareness. Hence, the role of leadership on innovation via work-related flow is not contingent on the perceived quality of remote communication. We conclude our paper by discussing these results and their implications for future research and management practice.
Theoretical/Research framework: Based on combined insights from the literature on empowering and directive leadership, work-related flow, and innovative work behavior and literature on remote (home) working and IT-enabled presence awareness, we developed a set of hypotheses that both focused on the relationships between the study’s core variables and the changes herein over time.
Method: We employed PLS-SEM analysis to analyze the perceptions, experiences and behaviors of a group of employees (N= 257) regarding the study’s core variables during two phases of the COVID-19 pandemic (summer 2020 and autumn 2020) which allowed us to examine the relationships between the study’s core variables and the role of the duration and intensity of the remote (home) work practice in which routines, cognition and behavior towards homeworking may have been changed.
Findings: In line with expectations, in the earlier phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, empowering leadership had both a direct and indirect positive relationship with innovative work behavior via work-related flow, whereas directive leadership only had a direct negative relationship with innovative work behavior. In the second phase, however, empowering leadership only had an indirect positive relationship with innovation, running via work-related flow. Moreover, directive leader was both directly and indirectly related to innovation, via work-related flow. In contrast to our expectations, IT-enabled presence awareness did not play a moderating role in these relationships.
Conclusion and discussion: Our findings underline the importance of empowerment in sustaining innovative work behavior, particularly in intense and enduring remote work contexts, as this amplifies employees’ ability, motivation, and opportunity to generate, share and implement novel ideas. In remote work contexts, empowering leadership can particularly foster innovation indirectly via work-related flow, and increasingly important underlying mechanism over time. Directive leadership, in contrast, can reduce work-related flow and, therefore, in the longer run, hinder innovation. Whereas leadership plays an important role in remote work-contexts, our study did not find evidence for the role of employees’ perceptions of IT-enabled presence awareness. Hence, the role of leadership on innovation via work-related flow is not contingent on the perceived quality of remote communication. We conclude our paper by discussing these results and their implications for future research and management practice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 21 Jun 2021 |
| Event | The 19th International Labour and Employment Relations Association world congress: Making and Breaking Boundaries in Work and Employment Relations - Lund university, Lund, Sweden Duration: 21 Jun 2021 → 24 Jun 2021 Conference number: 19 http://www.ileraworldcongress2021.se/app/netattm/attendee/page/97955 |
Conference
| Conference | The 19th International Labour and Employment Relations Association world congress |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | ILERA 2021 |
| Country/Territory | Sweden |
| City | Lund |
| Period | 21/06/21 → 24/06/21 |
| Internet address |
Keywords
- Covid19
- hybrid working
- Empowering leadership
- directive leadership
- innovation
- teleworking
- remote working
- homebased working
- digital presence