Multilevel Study on Psychological Empowerment and Perception of Barriers to Innovation: the Moderating Influence of Collectivism Orientation and Job Formalization

Abstract

This research builds and tests a conceptual model on the process how psychological empowerment affects perception of barriers to innovation after synthesizing concerned theories. Based on statistical analysis to the survey data collected from south China, we find that, as anticipated, personal level psychological empowerment and team level psychological empowerment positively affects each other, and the interaction between the two levels psychological empowerment has a combined negative effect on perception of barriers to innovation. Besides, collectivism orientation moderates the connection between personal and team psychological empowerment, also job formalization plays a moderating role in the relationship between team psychological empowerment and perception of barriers to innovation.