How Do Servant Leadership and Knowledge Sharing Trigger Innovative Work Behaviors among Millennials at Start-up Businesses?

Abstract

Purpose:Technological developments and environmental changes are currently growing rapidly. This adaptation indirectly requires a company to continue to innovate, especially in the development of Start Up software. This study aims to examine the relationship between servant leadership and knowledge sharing on innovative work behavior. This study also explores the mediating role of creative self-efficacy on innovative work behavior. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected from 120 millennial Start Up employees in the field of software development. Data collection was carried out through a survey design. Data analysis was done through a structural equation model using PLS-Smart. Findings: The results show that servant leadership and knowledge sharing have a significant positive effect on innovative work behavior. Creative self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. Creative self-efficacy is also able to partially mediate the relationship between knowledge sharing and innovative work behavior. Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing literature by integrating the mechanism between servant leadership and knowledge sharing into innovative work behavior. Practical implications: This study provides prospective insights to management leaders and practitioners that servant leadership and knowledge sharing bring about positive change in the innovative work behavior. It also augments innovative behavior by enhancing employees' creative self-efficacy, especially millennials in Start-Up businesses.

Research on the Influence of Undergraduates’ Perceived Servant Leadership in China: The Effect of Innovative Atmosphere and Innovative Self-Efficacy

“…Furthermore, perceived servant leadership significantly and positively impacts innovative self-efficacy among these students, corroborating the findings of Dayanti and Yulianti (2023), Zainal and Lata (2021), Iqbal et al (2022), and Suhartanti and Prasetyanto (2022). Through positive emotional support and encouragement, servant leadership conveys to students that they are recognized, trusted, and capable of facing new challenges (Khan et al, 2022).…”

The effectiveness of servant leadership in enhancing innovative work behavior: The art of job engagement

“…Some examples of research of this topic in service industry are: in high-tech company (Su et al, 2020), school institutions (Anshori et al, 2023;Hermanto & Srimulyani, 2022), hotel (Ling et al, 2016), college teachers (Shailja et al, 2023), and public company (Chen et al, 2022). These studies have found that servant leadership enhance job engagement (Kaya & Karatepe, 2020), innovative work behavior (Dayanti & Yulianti, 2023;Shailja et al, 2023;Su et al, 2020;Yoshida et al, 2014), creative process engagement (Chen et al, 2022), higher performance (Hermanto & Srimulyani, 2022), organizational citizenship behavior and extra role behavior (Hermanto & Srimulyani, 2022), and career satisfaction (Kaya & Karatepe, 2020).…”

“…In general, servant leadership behavior encourages the emergence of several positive outcomes (Cai et al, 2018;Hermanto & Srimulyani, 2022;Ling et al, 2016;Su et al, 2020). Some of them are employees' ability and desire to work innovatively (Cai et al, 2018;Dayanti & Yulianti, 2023;Yoshida et al, 2014), follower performance and motivation (Anshori et al, 2023), employees' service quality (Ling et al, 2016), and lower level of employees' deviance behavior (Sendjaya et al, 2019), meaning that the core essence of the servant leadership model lies in its emphasis on behaviors that prioritize the contributions of followers and support their ability to reach their full potential.…”