A moderating role of power distance in support for innovations and innovative behaviour of middle and front- line managerial level employees in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Research on practices of innovative behavior of organizational employees supports the notion that continuous support may be the predictors of effective innovation implementation in contemporary organizations. Extant studies stress that various ways of support gained for innovations is related to fruitful innovations within an organization and identify managerial, organizational and cultural support as key elements of support for innovations. Generally, the level of support for innovations may vary as per the power distance in different hierarchical authorities. However, relatively few studies have tested how and why management, organization and organizational culture support relate to innovative behavior and largely ignored the influences of power distance in organization hierarchies. Accordingly, the main aims of the present study are to investigate the impact of support for innovations on innovative behavior and to examine the moderating role of power distance, in social distance process of power. To advance the understanding of these topics, simple regression analysis and moderator regression analysis were performed to test hypotheses with a sample size of 120 middle- and lower-level employees from Sri Lanka. The study found that there is a positive direct effect of support for innovations and innovative behaviour of middle- and lower-level employees. Further, power distance moderates the positive relationship between support for innovations and innovative behaviour with an antagonistic effect. The present study makes several theoretical contributions to social cognitive theory and the social distance theory of power. Managerial contributions of the present study make domestic firms successful through better focus of innovation support and power distance which facilitate innovative behaviour of employees