Perceived Job Flexibility and Innovative Work Behaviour: The Roles of Supervisor Communication and Knowledge Hiding

Offering employees more flexible working options is now a popular human resources management practice for many companies. Although there are strong business cases that favour these non-traditional working arrangements, some business executives are concerned that they might slow employee innovation because they reduce interpersonal and social interactions. According to the available literature, job flexibility stimulates employee innovative work behaviour. However, the theoretical explanation of why and how is not entirely clear. Based on social exchange theory (SET), this study posits that higher levels of employee perception of job flexibility will be associated with higher levels of innovative work behaviour. Employees who perceive their jobs as highly flexible are likely to reciprocate these working opportunities with reduced knowledge hiding, and they would also increase job-related communication to mitigate the career risks of flexible working. Surveying 507 employees from 13 industries in Nigeria and using structural equation modelling (SEM), the findings suggest that supervisor-subordinate communication and subordinate knowledge hiding mediate the effect of perceived job flexibility on the innovative work behavior of the employee. The implications of the findings are useful for the design of effective, employee-centered flexible work arrangements that support knowledge and innovation management.