The Influence of Supervisor Developmental Feedback on Employee Innovative Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Previous scholars have recognized the critical role of supervisors in stimulating employee innovative behavior, although it is still unclear whether and how supervisor developmental feedback impacts employee innovative behavior. To resolve this issue, the present study develops and verifies a moderated mediation model to explore the positive influence of supervisor developmental feedback on employee innovative behavior via creative self-efficacy, as well as the moderating role of a supervisor’s organizational embodiment in this process. Analyses of the multi-time data from 375 employees indicate that supervisor developmental feedback is positively associated with employee innovative behavior via his/her creative self-efficacy. Moreover, a supervisor’s organizational embodiment moderates the influence of supervisor developmental feedback on employee creative self-efficacy and the mediating role of creative self-efficacy. From these analyses, the present study not only further develops several views of pervious research in the field of supervisor feedback and employee innovation, but also provides a potential managerial way to promote employee innovative behavior from the perspective of supervisor feedback.

‘I know those people will be approachable and not mistreat us’: a qualitative study of inspectors and private drug sellers on peer supervision in rural Uganda

“…These results are congruent with ndings from other research which shows that supervisors are regarded as pivotal by supervisees [34,35]. This happens most especially when information from supervisees needs to be synthesized and passed on to top level management in a manner that sustains a favourable operational climate.…”

Supervisor Feedback and Innovative Work Behavior: The Mediating Roles of Trust in Supervisor and Affective Commitment

“…When supervisors provide employees with work-relevant information, employees acquire more knowledge and skills. As employees' work-relevant knowledge and skills are crucial parts of individual creative self-efficacy, employees are more likely to generate novel ideas and use innovative skills at work through supervisor feedback (Su et al, 2019).…”

Linking Leader Humor to Employee Innovative Behavior: The Roles of Work Engagement and Supervisor’s Organizational Embodiment

“…This is also a reason why many companies strive to encourage their employees to innovate actively. Generally, employee innovative behavior refers to the activities related to innovation that employees actively participate in, including the generation, promotion, implementation, and retaliation of their innovative ideas (Janssen, 2003;Su et al, 2019). Shalley and Gilson (2004) have pointed out that innovative behavior of employee is characterized by high risks and high investment, which requires employees to be fully engaged and maintain a highly focused state of mind (Pieterse et al, 2010;Park et al, 2014).…”

“…Furthermore, one of the most important implicit assumptions about the influence of leaders on employees is that the former can represent the organization (Hou et al, 2018;Su et al, 2019). Supervisor's organizational embodiment (SOE), as a concept that describes employees' perceptions about supervisors' shared characteristics with the organization (Eisenberger et al, 2010), can enhance or weaken the influence of leaders on their employees' attitudes and behaviors (Shoss et al, 2013;Mackey et al, 2018).…”