Innovative work behavior in hospitality industry: the role of psychological empowerment and work engagement

The purpose of this research is to explore how innovative work behavior (IWB) is constructed in a hospitality industry. Hospitality industry is one of highly standardized operating procedure industries. SOP often leaves less room for improvisation and innovation because every activity is standardized and evaluated based on the SOP. However, customers demand highly customized services that often need the creativity of the employees to meet the customers� expectations. Therefore, this study is examining the influence of psychological empowerment and work engagement on IWB among the hotel employees. As quantitative research, the data were gathered using questionnaires which were distributed to 250 respondents, with 205 valid questionnaires. The respondents were the employees of three-to-five-star hotels who had been working for at least one year. Then, the collected data were processed and analyzed with the help of smartPLS software. This study finds that psychological empowerment does not influence significantly on IWB. However, work engagement influences significantly on IWB, and work engagement also mediates psychological empowerment and IWB.