Leading the innovation: role of trust and job crafting as sequential mediators relating servant leadership and innovative work behavior

Purpose The purpose of the study is to ascertain the role of servant leadership in causing innovative work behavior. The study also examines the mediating role of job crafting and sequential mediating role of trust and job crafting between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from 258 knowledge workers employed in software houses in Pakistan through survey design. The data analysis was done through structural equation modeling. Findings The results of the analysis of 258 respondents show that servant leadership is related with trust, job crafting and innovative work behavior. The mediation analysis revealed that job crafting mediates the relation between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. Finally, the relation between servant leadership and innovative work behavior was found to be sequentially mediated by trust and job crafting. Originality/value The current study contributes to delineating the linking mechanism between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. The main contributions of the study are exploring the mediating role of job crafting along with the sequential mediating role of trust and job crafting.