| Abstrakt: |
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between servant leadership, employee innovative behavior and knowledge employee performance in knowledge-based firms. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach was used to conduct the present study. The respondents were sampled from knowledge-based firms in Iran. Overall, 726 knowledge employees in 121 firms were selected using convenience sampling. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the validity and reliability of the observed items, and a structural equation model was employed for testing the hypotheses. Findings: In the studied firms, servant leadership has a significant effect on employee innovative behavior. Moreover, the findings of this study show that firms that enhance their employees' innovative behavior have higher knowledge employee performance. Research limitations/implications: The study was conducted in knowledge-based firms in Iran. Therefore, our conclusions may not be applicable to other countries. Future studies should be carried out with samples from other contexts. Practical implications: We found that servant leadership is conducive to employee innovative behaviors, and this effect leads to high knowledge employee performance. Accordingly, knowledge-based firms' leaders should encourage employees' innovative behavior through stimulating employee thriving at work, supporting employees' development and empowering them with decision-making discretion. Originality/value: This study contributes to advance research on servant leadership literature by linking servant leadership to knowledge employee performance in knowledge-based firms through employee innovative behavior as a mediator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
