Managerial coaching and employees’ innovative work behavior: The mediating effect of work engagement

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rely on each employee to be innovative, and understanding how employees can be supported in their innovative behavior is a crucial factor. This study draws on managerial coaching (MC) literature to examine the dynamics of how leadership behaviors impact employees’ innovative work behavior (IWB). In an attempt to disclose the mechanism through which MC can impact the IWB of employees, we particularly expected work engagement to mediate the relationship. Accordingly, we operationalized IWB as a four-dimensional construct to show whether MC and work engagement equally affect all of the dimensions of IWB. We collected survey data (N = 4418) from 88 Finnish SMEs and found that MC was positively related to each dimension of IWB, and that work engagement mediated the linkages. Interestingly, the importance of MC (both directly and when mediated by work engagement) grows as the employee moves from idea exploration to implementation. This study sheds light on the mechanism through which leadership behavior can impact the IWB of employees in SMEs.