Aviation employees’ innovative work behavior: the roles of servant leadership and job crafting

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how and when servant leadership fosters innovative work behavior among employees in the aviation industry. In addition, the mediating role of job crafting in these relationships is investigated in this study. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected from participants who have been working in aviation enterprises in Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. Findings The study results illustrated that servant leadership has a positive impact on job crafting and innovative work behavior. Furthermore, job crafting functions as a mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. Originality/value This research analyzes the impact of servant leadership on innovative work behavior and the mediating role of job crafting in this linkage. Through theoretical insights, this research deepens knowledge about the direct and indirect paths between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. Moreover, managerial insight also reveals that organizations should enroll their supervisors in training programs specifically tailored to improve their servant leadership skills to foster job crafting and innovative work behavior.