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.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between extrinsic, intrinsic and social rewards and two components of organizational commitment and finally Chinese workers turnover intention in public and private sector. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was utilized as the method for data collection. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine survey data obtained from 202 employees in the southern part of China. Findings – The findings exhibit that extrinsic, social and intrinsic rewards were significantly related to affective and normative commitment. Findings suggest that satisfaction with extrinsic benefits, supervisor support, coworker support, autonomy, training and participation in decision making has substantial impact on employee’s affective and normative commitment. However, affective and normative commitment was negatively related to employee turnover intention. Research limitations/implications – This study covers different public and private-sector organization employees working in China. Therefore other geographical areas could be designated for future research endeavors with a bigger sample size. Practical implications – With the purpose of boosting employee commitment, managers must provide their employees with greater autonomy, appropriate training and participation in decision making in the organization, as well as enhancing supervisor and coworker support. Originality/value – This research investigates how Chinese employees with different categories of organizational rewards react to different kinds of organizational commitment and turnover intention in Chinese organizational context.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships among organizational justice, innovative organization culture, perceived organizational support (POS), affective commitment and innovative behavior (IB). The mediating role of POS is tested within the relationship of justice dimensions, affective commitment and IB. Design/methodology/approach Data for this research were collected from 367 managerial and executive employees working in manufacturing and IT sector firms in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test hypothesized relationships. Findings Results indicate that organizational justice (distributive, procedural and interactional justice), innovative organization culture and POS are significantly related to affective commitment and employees’ IB. The findings also showed that organizational justice stimulates employees’ affective commitment and IB through mediating POS as well as directly. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this study is its cross-sectional design and self-reported questionnaire data. This study is also limited to manufacturing and IT sector in Pakistan. Therefore, other sectors and geographical locations could be chosen for future research using a bigger sample size. Originality/value This study makes important theoretical contributions using social exchange theory. It also expands the research in the area of organizational justice dimensions, organizational culture and POS as antecedents of affective commitment and IB. This study is an exceptional investigation of justice, organization culture, POS, commitment and IB in the Pakistan cultural context.

The current study objective is to investigate how and when leader member exchange (LMX), tie strength, and innovative organizational culture influences employee innovative behavior. In particular, this study uses the social exchange theory to analyze that nurses who demonstrate high affective commitment exhibit a higher level of creativity in the workplace. Based on social exchange theory and perceived organizational support (POS) literature, the current study aims to reveal how perceived organizational support (POS) serves as an imperative mediating process between LMX, tie strength, innovative organizational culture, and employee IB. A questionnaire survey was utilized to collect the data from nurses working in public sector hospitals in Jiangsu province China. A total sample size consists of 325 nurses. Structural equation modeling through AMOS 20 was utilized to analyze the survey data. Results from the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicated that LMX, tie strength, and POS are significantly related to affective commitment and employees’ IB. However, innovative organizational culture has a significant influence on POS and IB, but has no impact on affective commitment. This study covers only public sector hospitals and is limited to Jiangsu province, China. The research could be reproduced in other designated areas in different organizational setups with a bigger sample size to further enhance the understanding of the topic. The key understanding of social exchange theory (SET) is that social relationships can be used appropriately to foster an employee’s IB. It also expands research in the area of LMX, tie strength, innovative organizational culture, and POS as antecedents of affective commitment and IB. This study is a remarkable analysis of LMX, POS, organization culture, commitment, and IB in 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.