Psychological capital and innovative work behaviour as predictors of employee in-role behaviour

Abstract

This study investigates the empirical relationship between psychological capital and innovative behaviour and whether the two latent variables act as antecedents of employee in role behaviour. Competitive advantage can be attained through in- role work behaviours in that they determine how well a business can offer quality goods and services at a fee to clients, being in the position to meet the objective of making profits and social responsibility targets. If in-role behaviours have such important organizational outcomes it is therefore important to explore some of their antecedents.    A survey design was used to achieve the research objectives. Participants in this study were a group of 193 employees aged between 20-60 from the public sector selected based on a non-probability sampling technique specifically convenient sampling. The instruments included: The psychological capital rating scale, the innovative behaviour scale and the in role behaviour scale (Williams & Anderson, 1991). Item and factor analysis was performed via SPSS 25. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed for the measurement model and through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and the hypothesized paths in the proposed structural model were empirically assessed using Lisrel 8.80.  The three measuring instruments had acceptable reliability levels. Through exploratory factor analysis, all three scales demonstrated Uni-dimensionality. The goodness of fit indices showed that the measurement model achieved a reasonable fit with the data. The completely standardized gamma matrix of path coefficients for the structural model indicates a statistically significant relationship between psychological capital and innovative behaviour with a t-value of 4.915 which is bigger than 1.96 and p< 0.05, psychological capital and employee in role behaviours with t value of 2.874 which is also bigger than 1.96 and p < 0.05. The relationship in the beta matrix between innovative behaviour and employee in- role behaviour is supported with a t value of 2.352.  Empirical results for this study have proven that psychological capital and innovative behaviour are predictors of employee in- role behaviour.