Gender, emotional support and innovative behavior: psychological capital as a mediator

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores the direct and indirect effects of family emotional, social and organizational support on Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) through psychological capital (Psy.Cap).

Design/methodology/approach

Selected by conducting stratified random sampling techniques, 397 employees completed a questionnaire. We used structural equation modeling and multi-group testing by Smart-PLS3 to analyze the data.

Findings

Findings reveal that all sources of social-emotional support, including family, supervisor and co-worker support, positively affect Psy.Cap. Moreover, Psy.Cap mediates the effect of family, co-workers and supervisors' emotional support on IWB. The multi-group analysis indicates that all relationships in the model are significant for both groups of males and females; however, there are no significant differences in the link between organizational support and psychological capital, as well as family and co-worker support and innovative work behavior between males and females. The study's results demonstrate the significantly higher impact of family emotional support – Psy.Cap and supervisor support on IWB amongst females compared to their male counterparts.

Originality/value

The implications of this research highlight the importance of considering affective factors on employees’ IWB, as well as the differences between genders in this regard.

Citation

Hosseini, A., Ghasempour Ganji, S.F. and Dana, L.-P. (2024), "Gender, emotional support and innovative behavior: psychological capital as a mediator", Management Decision, Vol. 62 No. 12, pp. 4095-4117. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-02-2023-0266