Digital leadership and employee innovative performance: the role of job crafting and person-job fit

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Digital Transformation
• Innovation Management

Background:

• Innovation-driven growth is crucial for organizations navigating the digital economy.
• Digital leadership and employee behavior are key drivers of innovative performance.
• Understanding the mechanisms linking digital leadership to innovation is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of digital leadership on employee innovative performance.
• To examine the mediating role of job crafting (task and cognitive crafting) in this relationship.
• To explore the moderating effect of person-job fit on the digital leadership-innovation performance link.

Main Methods:

• A moderated mediation model was constructed based on the proactive motivation model.
• Data were collected from 306 employees in manufacturing firms via questionnaires.
• Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses.

Main Results:

• Digital leadership positively influences employee innovative performance.
• Task crafting and cognitive crafting mediate the relationship between digital leadership and innovative performance.
• Person-job fit positively moderates the link between cognitive crafting and innovative performance, and the indirect effect of digital leadership via cognitive crafting.

Conclusions:

• Digital leadership enhances innovative performance through job crafting, especially cognitive crafting.
• A strong person-job fit amplifies the positive impact of digital leadership on innovation.
• Organizations should foster digital leadership and person-job fit to drive innovation.