Leveraging structural empowerment and human capital for organizational innovation

Purpose This study examines how structural empowerment fosters organizational innovation, with human capital as a mediating mechanism. It also explores the moderating roles of technology-driven organizational change and the strategic importance of human capital in shaping the empowerment-innovation relationship. Design/methodology/approach Leveraging workplace empowerment and human capital resource theories, this study tests a moderated mediation model using data from 434 South Korean manufacturing firms (42,511 managers and employees). Zero-inflated Poisson’s regression analyses and bootstrapping methods are employed to test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that structural empowerment enhances human capital, which in turn drives innovation. Furthermore, technology-driven organizational change and the strategic importance of human capital strengthen the positive effects of human capital on innovation, revealing the crucial contextual factors that amplify these relationships. Originality/value This study integrates workplace empowerment theory with human capital resource theory to offer a new perspective on how structural empowerment fosters innovation by transforming individual capabilities into collective resources. By isolating structural empowerment’s unique role, it highlights the critical mediating function of human capital in driving innovation. Furthermore, the introduction of technology-driven organizational change and the strategic importance of human capital as moderators emphasizes how these factors shape the task and social environments, enabling human capital to function effectively as an organizational resource.