Leadership, strategic direction, motivation, and innovation and learning: A cross-sectional analysis from an organizational health perspective

Innovation and learning are essential for organizational renewal, yet the internal conditions through which organizations support these outcomes require clearer theoretical integration. This study examines innovation and learning through an organizational health lens because this lens integrates relational, strategic, motivational, and renewal-oriented conditions that are particularly relevant in restructuring contexts. Using cross-sectional survey data from 2770 employees of a large Indonesian public organization undergoing restructuring, the model was tested with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4.0. The findings show that strategic direction was positively associated with innovation and learning both directly and indirectly through motivation, whereas leadership was associated with innovation and learning primarily through its indirect pathway via motivation. Motivation emerged as the strongest direct predictor, with the model explaining 58.0% of the variance in motivation and 68.1% in innovation and learning. The study contributes to organizational health and innovation research by positioning organizational health as an explanatory lens and by identifying strategic direction as both an alignment mechanism and a motivational mechanism. Practically, the findings suggest that organizations seeking to strengthen innovation and learning should combine leadership development, a clear, shared, and communicated organizational direction, and sustained employee motivation. The results should be interpreted as theoretically informed associations rather than causal evidence because of the cross-sectional and self-reported design.