Organizational virtuousness fosters innovative performance and pro-social behavior: examining the role of employee resilience and agility

Purpose The study aims to examine the underlying psychological mechanism explaining the positive association of organizational virtuousness with innovative performance and pro-social behavior. Employing the job demands and resources theory (JD-R), the study argues that organizational virtuousness acts as a job resource in fostering employees’ personal resources (i.e. resilience and agility), consequently enhancing their innovative performance and pro-social behavior. Design/methodology/approach Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In study 1, a field study was conducted among employees of the Indian IT industry ( N = 382). To triangulate and enhance the internal validity of the findings, a scenario-based experiment was adopted in Study 2 ( N = 125). Findings The results of the field and experimental studies confirmed the direct and indirect association of organizational virtuousness with innovative performance and pro-social behavior. Employee resilience and agility were found to partially mediate the association between organizational virtuousness and outcomes (i.e. innovative performance and pro-social behavior). Practical implications The study underscores the benefits of working in an organization characterized by trust, optimism, compassion, integrity and forgiveness. Perceived organizational virtuousness reinforces employees’ ability to be resilient and agile, such that they are better capable of demonstrating innovative performance and pro-social behavior. Originality/value The study innovates by drawing on a field study and a scenario-based experiment in examining the role of personal resources (resilience and agility) as the underlying mechanisms through which employees’ perceptions of their organization’s virtuousness get translated into innovative performance and pro-social behavior.