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Purpose

Based on the Social Exchange Theory and Conservation of Resources Theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of transformational and transactional leadership on scientists’ innovative work behavior (IWB). It also examines the mediating effect of scientists’ psychological empowerment in the relationship between transformational leadership and IWB as well as between transactional leadership and IWB.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a quantitative design and uses data from a sample size of 357 scientists from all five different subject domains of India’s largest civilian Research and Development (R&D) organization, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Hierarchal component modeling (HCM) was performed for transformational leadership transactional leadership and psychological empowerment, whereas IWB was modeled as a first-order reflective construct. PLS-SEM was used to assess the study’s model and hypotheses.

Findings

It was found that transformational leadership is positively related to IWB and psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and IWB. Moreover, transactional leadership was found to be positively related to IWB while psychological empowerment did not mediate the relationship between transactional leadership and IWB.

Originality/value

This study adds to IWB literature by empirically testing the mediating role of psychological empowerment between transformational leadership-IWB and transactional leadership-IWB link in the R&D context of an emerging economy using HCM.

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