Empowerment

Discussion of findings

This study analyses the factors influencing employee innovation behavior from two aspects, namely, leadership empowering behavior and thriving at work. The following key conclusions are drawn.

Firstly, the personal development support and participative decision making dimensions of leadership empowering behavior have a significant positive influence on employees' innovation behavior, but the influence of delegation of authority on employees' innovation behavior is unconfirmed. The conclusions of this study indicate that companies should gradually shift their leadership style from centralization to authorization. Leadership empowerment can help employees share increased resources; make employees feel the support, attention and encouragement of the company; and enhance their sense of belonging and loyalty, thereby improving their sense of innovation self-efficacy and further stimulating their innovation behavior. Therefore, under a stable corporate organizational structure, leadership empowerment is conducive to corporate development.

Secondly, thriving at work has a significant positive influence on innovation behavior. This outcome shows that vigor and learning can influence employees' creativity and help them form, maintain and develop their creativity. According to componential theory of creativity, ability, knowledge and motivation are the key internal components of creativity. Employees with a high sense of thriving at work have a high level of knowledge, vigor and energy. Through continuous learning and by honing and improving their professional abilities and skills, employees can generate innovative ideas.

Thirdly, the participative decision making dimension of leadership empowering behavior has a significant positive influence on personal development support and delegation of authority. At the same time, delegation of authority has a significant positive influence on vigor. The research conclusions show that the participative decision making dimension of leadership empowering behavior can satisfy employees' sense of participation. By participating in the company's decision making, employees' dominant position is respected, and increased psychological capital is obtained. In the process of participating in decision making, employees can easily obtain support from their leaders for their personal development by providing reasonable suggestions and innovative ideas. When employees are adequately capable, leaders will consider granting rights and appointments to facilitate increased innovative work.

Finally, personal development support has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between participative decision making and innovative behavior.

The analysis finds that the relationship between employees' participative decision making and innovation behavior is affected by personal development support. When leaders' support for employees' personal development is high, it can stimulate employees' enthusiasm for work, thereby encouraging them to participate actively in the development of the enterprise, express practical innovation views and provide innovation experiences and innovation models for the innovation and development of the enterprise and enhancing the overall innovation atmosphere of the enterprise and employees' innovation behavior.

Practical implications

The important insights of this research into the practice of business management mainly include the following aspects.

Firstly, leadership is one of the most important factors influencing employees' innovation behavior. This study confirms the positive effect of leadership empowering behavior on employees' innovation behavior and provides certain insights into how leaders can improve subordinates' innovation through their own actions. In an enterprise, leaders must first determine the quality of the employees, confirm that their quality can match the power granted them and avoid abuse and waste of power that employees are unable to master. To stimulate employees' innovation behavior, leaders must master the art of empowerment and delegate authority appropriately to enable employees to complete their work independently, understand the importance of responsibility and gain power whilst performing their corresponding obligations. Leaders must also regard employees' development as the organization's development and work as hard as possible to realize their value.

Secondly, leaders should focus on helping employees grow when they stimulate employees' innovation behavior through their empowering behavior, such as helping them plan and ensure their career path. Leaders should constantly pay attention to employees' work progress to prevent them from losing self-control after gaining decision-making power, which may cause delays, deviations and other consequences. An organization's strategy and vision are decomposed into strategies at every level and conveyed correctly to subordinates to prevent them from deviating from the general direction of the organization and acting contrary to the organization's expectations, thereby allowing them to participate in the organization's decision-making process, especially in decisions related closely to themselves, such as the establishment of work goals for the following quarter, work standards and so on. Finally, leaders should communicate and maintain close contact with employees at all times to ensure the normal flow of information. This correct exercise of empowering behavior can expand employees' resources and enhance their work, overall planning and leadership abilities. When employees are grateful and give back to the organization, they demonstrate increased innovation behavior, which will benefit the organization.

Thirdly, thriving at work has a substantial influence on employees' innovation behavior. In management practice, leaders must pay attention to employees' learning and growth and promote their learning and vigor. With the rapid development of science and technology, whether enterprises can advance is the key to their survival. The development of an enterprise is based on the development of its employees; thus, employees' individual learning is directly related to the competitive advantage of the organization. This research confirms the correlation between thriving at work and innovation behavior. Employees can trigger their increased innovation behavior by mastering new knowledge and technology or continuously gaining and integrating existing knowledge and technology. Therefore, leaders should adopt other leadership methods that encourage employees to participate in decision making, guide and help employees and share information to stimulate employees' vigor and learning behavior. At the same time, leaders and human resource departments should pay attention to guiding and promoting employees' learning behavior in a variety of ways, such as training in the latest knowledge of the industry, knowledge sharing meetings within the organization, regular basic knowledge and skills examinations, inviting internal and external lecturers to teach employees and so on to establish a learning organization, create a positive environment for employees' learning behavior, increase the availability of learning resources and help employees produce increased innovation behavior at work.

Theoretical implications

Through the discussion, research and verification of the relationship between leadership empowering behavior, thriving at work and employees' innovation behavior, this study makes the following theoretical contributions.

Firstly, most studies on leadership empowering behavior explored employees' perception and proved that leadership empowering behavior can promote employees' positive behavior. However, this research angle is broad, and the focus is narrow. This study is based on existing research results on personal development support, participative decision making and delegation of authority and analyses the influence of leadership empowering behavior on employees' innovation behavior. Moreover, this study further explores the internal mechanism between the three dimensions, which enriches research in the field of not only leadership empowering behavior but also innovation to a certain extent.

Secondly, thriving at work is a positive human and social capital. This study introduces thriving at work into research on the relationship between leadership empowering behavior and employees' innovation behavior, thereby verifying the influence of thriving at work on employees' innovation behavior and proving the positive influence of delegation of authority on thriving at work. In addition, this study enriches the theoretical basis of previous research on employees' sense of thriving at work.

Thirdly, personal development support has a positive effect on employees' innovation behavior and a significant moderating effect on the relationship between participative decision making and innovation behavior. This study introduces personal development support and examines its moderating effect, expands the boundary conditions of leadership empowering behavior and deepens understanding of the relationship between leadership empowering behavior and employees' innovation behavior. Furthermore, this study enriches the theoretical basis of the mechanism of the leadership behavior style affecting employees' innovation behavior.