The main objective of this research was to examine how transformational leaders boost their followers’ innovative work behavior through trust in a leader, empowerment, and work engagement. Data were collected from 281 multinational organization employees in China. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) macro process was utilized to test the proposed hypothesis. The findings revealed that transformational leadership and work engagement were significantly related to innovative work behavior. The findings also demonstrated the significant impact of transformational leadership on trust in a leader, and its subsequent positive impact on the work engagement of the employees. Furthermore, the results supported a significant serial mediation between transformational leadership, trust, work engagement, and employees’ innovative behavior. The results also showed a significant moderating effect of empowerment on transformational leadership and innovative work behavior. For boosting employees’ innovative work behavior, leaders in the organization should strive to engage them effectively in their work by gaining their trust, which could help them participate in creative activities. This is the key study to investigate the different perspectives of how transformational leadership can stimulate followers’ innovative behavior through trust in the leader and work engagement within the Chinese organizational context.

PurposeThis study examines the serial mediation mechanism between paternalistic leadership and innovative work behavior through the leader–member exchange (LMX) and employee voice behavior. Particularly, this study utilized the social exchange theory to investigate the indirect effect of three distinct dimensions of paternalistic leadership style on innovative work behavior through LMX and employee voice behavior.Design/methodology/approachSelf-reported questionnaires were used to collect data from 397 employees in Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsThe two dimensions of paternalistic leadership were significantly related to LMX. LMX had a significant effect on employee voice behavior that was further related to innovative work behavior. The findings also support the mediating role of LMX between authoritarian and moral leadership and employee voice. Further, LMX and employee voice boosted the indirect relationship between moral leadership and innovative behavior. However, authoritarian leadership demonstrated a significant but negative indirect effect on innovative behavior through LMX and employee voice.Practical implicationsThe organizational members need to encourage a high LMX and voice behavior to enhance the positive effects of benevolent and moral leadership styles on innovative employee behaviors. Contrarily, they need to discourage authoritarian leadership if they want to enhance innovative work behavior through LMX and employee voice. Furthermore, when leaders provide a safe environment to employees at the workplace, then they may feel secure to take risks and exhibit innovative work behavior, which ultimately contributes to increasing employee and organizational performance.Originality/valueThis study extended the existing literature on paternalistic leadership in two important ways. First, this study examined a serial mediation mechanism to test the effect of paternalistic leadership on innovative work behavior through LMX and voice behavior. Second, this is a key study to investigate which dimension of paternalistic leadership is effective to boost employees' innovative work behavior at the individual level in the Pakistani organizational context.

PurposeMillennial-generation employees need to stimulate their creativity to produce innovative ideas, services and products for organizations to flourish and succeed. The main purpose of this research was to discover the mechanism through which organization identification influences employees' creativity in the Chinese organizational context. Particularly, we proposed the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating role of work values in the relationship.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was utilized to collect the data from 281 employees working in China. Hierarchical regression was utilized to analyze the data.FindingsThe findings reveal that organizational identification significantly influences the creativity of millennial employees; work engagement plays a positive mediating role between organizational identification and employee creativity. Moreover, work values of millennial generation employees, specifically utilitarian orientation, intrinsic preferences, interpersonal harmony and innovation orientation have a positive moderating effect between work engagement and employee creativity.Originality/valueThis study recognizes and analyzes the mechanism underlying the influence of organizational identification and recommends that work engagement is a crucial mediator of the complicated relationship between organizational identification and employee creativity. Consequently, this study is the key effort for millennial employees’ work values and engagement to explore employee creativity in Chinese cultural context and also suggests important theoretical and practical implications.

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This study examined a moderated mediation model to explain how the indirect effect of transformational leadership (TL) on employees’ organizational commitment (OC) via procedural justice (PJ) is moderated by career growth opportunities (CGOs) in organizations. Data were gathered from 265 college faculty members. The results indicate that PJ serves as mediator between TL and OC, and this mediation process is affected by career growth. This research contributes to the leadership, human resource management, and organizational psychology literature by explaining how CGOs may affect the mediating process of PJ through which the relationship between TL and OC is determined. Organizational leaders can take insights from the findings of this study to increase their employees’ OC. Theoretical implications and future research directions have been discussed.