Innovative Work Behavior—A Key Factor in Business Performance? The Role of Team Cognitive Diversity and Teamwork Climate in This Relationship

Abstract

The aim of our paper is to examine whether the support of innovative work behavior by management is positively related to business performance and at the same time, whether this relationship is mediated by the teamwork climate and cognitive diversity of teams. Cognitive diversity is defined as differences in knowledge and perspective, which arise from professional diversity and account for its positive effects. A teamwork climate represents staff perceptions of collaboration between personnel. Business performance is defined by the level of sales. Our sample consisted of 211 managers of companies operating in Slovakia, and data collection took place in the form of a questionnaire. The main tool for examining the mechanism of operation of the investigated relationships is mediation using regression analysis and the Sobel test to determine the significance of the indirect effect of mediation variables. The findings point to a significant direct relationship between the innovative work behavior of company employees and business performance. The intensity of this relationship can be partly influenced by promoting cognitive diversity, especially in the area of knowledge and ways of thinking. The significant role of a teamwork climate was not demonstrated in the examined model.

Proactive Personality and Innovative Work Behavior: Through the Juxtapose of Schumpeter's Theory of Innovation and Broaden-And-Build Theory

“…Javed et al ( 2019 ) and Nguyen et al ( 2019 ) discussed that the antecedents of IWB individual, workgroup, and organization levels are job characteristics, work climate, individual differences, workgroup, personality, demands, values, and leadership directly related to IWB. Jankelová et al ( 2021 ) emphasized that IWB never received the same consideration as the team and organization. Additionally, the research on OI and IWB has aspired to grow as the distance has shrunk due to globalization, economic variations, and competitive advantage (Bani-Melhem et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Employees are an essential element of a business's innovation process; thus, enabling their IWB is critical. Consequently, IWB is critical to business sustainability (Jankelová et al, 2021 ).…”

Innovative behavior of Small and Medium Enterprises: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis

“…Innovation and business performance are presently the main topics of debate in the management literature [50]. Considering that innovation is one of the key factors of business development, good innovative practices offer a way to develop and implement policies.…”

“…SMEs are often hindered by limited resources and the fact that they depend on few individuals [52]. Due to the resource intensity of innovation, and thus a significant limitation of the innovative capacity of SMEs, the findings of some studies are mixed and inconclusive [50].…”

“…A firm's innovation capacity is a focal factor of its competitive advantage, and consequently, it may enhance the business performance of the firm [50], [53]- [56]. In most cases, innovation is associated with enhanced business performance in regards to efficiency, productivity, and profitability [57]- [59].…”