How organizational justice shapes innovative work behavior: Work engagement as mediator and authentic leadership as moderator in China's ICT sector

The significance of innovative work behavior has been well established in the literature on human resources and organizational management, particularly within the Chinese information and communication technology sector. However, limited research has simultaneously examined how organizational justice, work engagement, and authentic leadership interact to drive innovation in this fast-paced, high-pressure industry. Grounded in Social Exchange Theory, this study developed a research model to examine the effects of distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice on work engagement, which was conceptualized as a mediating variable. Furthermore, authentic leadership was incorporated as a moderating variable due to its potential to enhance the relationship between work engagement and innovative work behavior. A total of 364 managers and engineers from information and communication technology companies in Guangdong Province, China, participated in this study. The results of the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling analysis indicated that distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice were all significantly related to work engagement. Moreover, work engagement was found to mediate the relationships between the justice dimensions and innovative work behavior, while authentic leadership strengthened the impact of work engagement on innovative work behavior. These findings highlight how fairness-driven engagement, reinforced by authentic leadership, can foster employee innovation within China's rapidly evolving ICT sector. Finally, the limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.