The Effect of Psychological Capital on Innovation in Information Technology

Abstract

In today's competitive world, innovation is considered as a key factor to success and survival for organizations. So far, the literature has recognized various items that affect innovation in organizations. This paper seeks to investigate the effect of psychological capital on innovation in Information Technology (IT) among branches of Agriculture bank in Tehran, Iran. In terms of objective, this study is considered as an empirical one, and the research methodology is descriptive-correlative type. The population includes 132 managers and employees working in Agriculture bank branches in Tehran. Among those people, 100 individuals were selected to be studied based on using Cochran formula and through random sampling method. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. The Results of study showed a significant effect of psychological capital on innovation in IT. In addition, more specific analysis on each of the psychological capital dimensions (self-efficacy, hope, optimism, resilience) revealed that except resilience, none of them enhanced innovation in IT. Finally, this study proposes insights for managers how to enhance their employees' capabilities and psychological capital through constant measurement as well as using improvement plans in order to provide higher innovation in IT. The current research also provides more suggestion for future studies that could consider consequences of innovation in IT.

Transformational Leadership, Psychological Capital and Front-line Sales Staffs’ Service Quality: Psychological Capital as a Mediator

“…In addition, through the creation of organizational climate and construction of psychological contract between organization and employees, transformational leaders can develop the employees' psychological capital [32]. Meantime, under transformational organization climate, employees with higher psychological capital level tend to be more optimistic and tough, and they can keep better state of mind to face and overcome the difficulties in their service process [29], and they are also willing to put more energy to perform their duties and improve their service quality. Based on this, the hypothesis is put forward: Hypothesis 3: Psychological capital acts as a mediator between transformational leadership and front-line sales staffs' service quality.…”

“…In addition, the staff with higher psychological capital will be more optimistic, tough and full of hope [27], and for employees, higher level of hope brings higher level of job performance, and the retention rate and degree of job satisfaction is also higher [28]. And job satisfaction is positively related to service quality [17].The staffs with higher resilience can cope with the challenges and adversities better and be more likely to achieve success [29]. In the same way, when confronting with some unfriendly attitude of the customers, those staffs with high resilience can be indomitable and adjust their emotions and attitude in time to provide customers with better services, ensure their own service quality.…”

Psychological capital, task autonomy and innovative work behaviour among public organisation employees

“…Sameer and Ohly (2017) examined PsyCap and innovative behaviour among professionals from a variety of job types, in different companies; results showed a positive relationship between the variables. Similarly, Ziyae et al (2015) observed that PsyCap as composite factors has significant effect on innovation, just as resilience enhanced innovation technology, while self-efficacy, hope and optimism did not. Dong et al (2016) reported that composite PsyCap and its dimensions positively predict IWB, while knowledge sharing plays intermediary role between PsyCap and IWB.…”

“…PsyCap -performance proposal has attracted some empirical work and confirmation. For instance, PsyCap predicts supervisors-rated performance (Luthans et al, 2005), innovation (Ziyae et al, 2015), knowledge sharing (Sharafi et al, 2014), and organisation learning (Mahar et al, 2017). Extensive research efforts have been made to decipher the value of PsyCap in work setting, however, this study is necessitated by some gaps in the existing literature.…”

Positive Antecedents and Consequences of Entrepreneurship -Theoretical Considerations

“…There is no research that implicitly associates the level of PsyCap and entrepreneurship, however Ziyae, Mobaraki and Saeediyoun (2015) showed a significant effect of psychological capital on innovation in IT. In addition, more specific analysis on each of the PsyCap dimensions revealed that except resilience, none of them enhanced innovation in IT.…”