Enhancing Employee Flourishing through Psychological Empowerment, Affective Commitment, proactivity, and Innovative Behaviour

Purpose: This study addresses a research gap in employee flourishing from a workplace perspective, particularly among frontline employees in SME cafés in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Drawing on Empowerment Theory and the Broaden-and-Build Theory, the study examines how psychological empowerment influences employee flourishing through proactive personality, affective commitment, and service innovative work behaviour. Research design, data and methodology: A quantitative research design was employed, with data collected from 440 frontline employees using structured questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to test the proposed hypotheses. Results: Psychological empowerment significantly predicts proactive personality, affective commitment, and service innovative work behaviour (β = 0.20-0.34, p < 0.001). These variables, in turn, positively influence employee flourishing, with service innovative work behaviour (β = 0.28) and affective commitment (β = 0.19) as key contributors. However, the moderating effect of affective commitment on the relationship between service innovative work behaviour and employee flourishing was not significant. Conclusions: The findings highlight the central role of psychological empowerment in fostering employee flourishing. Practically, SME managers can enhance employee well-being by promoting autonomy, encouraging proactive behaviour, and supporting service innovation, which ultimately contributes to sustainable business performance.