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

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.