Fostering employee innovation: Linking person–organization fit to innovative behavior through knowledge sharing and reward perception

Abstract The core foundation of data‐driven public administration is establishing a digital platform that enables collaboration between various subjects and stakeholders; for this, active interaction among employees of an organization and their innovations in deriving creative ideas and actions are essential. Reflecting this, this study focused on promoting employees' innovative behavior (IB) through the activation of knowledge sharing (KS) within the organization, considering other key variables, person–organization fit (POF) and reward perception (RP). We integrated the mediation model of POF, KS, and IB and the moderation model of POF, RP, and KS to confirm whether the effect of POF on KS moderated by RP affects IB. Analysis of data on 1420 public employees of 33 local government agencies in South Korea shows that all the research models work. These results confirm the positive and direct relationship between POF and IB, and prove the mediating effect of KS in the POF–IB relationship and the moderating effect of RP in the POF–KS relationship, respectively. Furthermore, it confirms that the level of employees' perceived congruence between the employees themselves and the organization has a stronger effect on IB when employees clearly recognize rewards for their KS activities. Based on these findings, we present critical suggestions to improve employees' KS and IB.