Toward the nurturing of a human experience to improve employees’ innovation capabilities: the effect of employee experience and emotional engagement

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of employee experience, focused on the individual and designed to incorporate all of the psychological needs (trust in supervisor, psychological meaningfulness and sense of belonging) on employee emotional engagement and, in turn, on employee innovation capabilities, as outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from the data of 285 Italian employees recruited from a panel, the hypothesized relationships between constructs were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings The measurement model results identify and validate the model constructs. The structural model results show that all three components of employee experience – trust in the supervisor, psychological meaningfulness and sense of belonging – positively and significantly impact employee emotional engagement. Furthermore, the study reveals that employee emotional engagement positively and significantly affects innovation capabilities. Originality/value Although previous studies have investigated the effect of top-down human resource practices designed to improve employees’ outcomes, this study pioneers the examination of the effect of the employee experience, a bottom-up concept centered around employees and their psychological needs, on employee emotional engagement and of employee emotional engagement on employee innovation capabilities. Findings provide interesting insights for organizations and managers and shed light on the crucial role played by employee experience in improving emotional engagement and boosting innovation capabilities.