The Antecedents of Innovation Climate: Cross-Level Mediation Perspectives
Purpose: This study aims to examine the significance of person-organizational fit on innovation climate through a mechanism of the cross-level mediation effects of emotional intelligence and psychological climate. The moderating effect of leader openness on the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological safety is also examined in this study. Design/methodology/approach: First, a random sampling technique was adopted to select 158 high-tech firms in Taiwan. Second, a purposive sampling technique was also adopted to select 1:4 dyadic managers and employees relationships in the Research & Development (R&D) department of each selected sample firms. The valid of respondents is tested on 252 subordinates and 67 managers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS 21 and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM 7) were used to test six research hypotheses. Findings: At cross-level of analysis, the results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that person-organizational fit is positively related to emotional intelligence and innovation climate, respectively. The moderating role of leader openness is also confirmed in this study.At individual level of analysis, SEM showed that emotional intelligence is positively related to psychological safety, and psychological safety is positively related to innovation climate. Form mediation aspects by using a Sobel’s test, the findings indicated that psychological safety is partially mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and innovation climate. Therefore, these findings suggest that person-organizational fit and emotional intelligence can play very critical roles as predictors of innovation climate through a mediation of psychological safety. Research limitation/implications: The main research limitations include the use of high-tech industries in Taiwan. This study also focused on subordinate-manager dyadic relationship in each of the R&D department, which seems to be a small portion of the total staffs of such organizations. Drawing upon person-organizational fit and the affective event theories, this study found that the emotional intelligence partially mediates the effect of person-organizational fit on psychological safety.These research findings may also provide significant contributions to both academics and professionals by which to understand matched pairs in employee-manager relationships in order to improve organizational innovation climate. Originality/value: This study primary integrates the affective events and person-environment fit theories to test the comprehensive research framework of the influences of person-organizational fit on innovation climate through a mechanism of the cross-level mediationof emotional intelligence.