Background. Considering the challenge of today’s organizations, innovation by employees is an important factor to foster innovation and organizational success, and gain competitive advantage for organizations. Although employees’ innovative work behavior are important aspect, many previous studies only focuses on employees’ creativity. For innovation by employees to occur in organizations, leaders have considerable influence over the context within which innovation can occur. Empowering leaders can foster an organizational climate for innovation that promotes employees’ innovative work behavior, but limited attention has been paid to explaining how empowering leadership stimulating employees’ innovative work behavior via organizational climate for innovation. The main research question is whether there is effect of empowering leadership on employees’ innovative work behavior with organizational climate for innovation as mediator variable. This paper specifically examines whether empowering leadership is linked to organizational climate for innovation, which in turn is linked to employees’ innovative work behavior.

Methods. The data were collected with an online survey answered by 146 employees at both public and private manufacture industry in Indonesia. The sampling technique of this study was mixed sampling technique, combining purposive and snowball sampling. The instruments of this study used were Empowering Leadership Scale, Organizational Climate for Innovation Scale, and Innovative Work Behavior Scale. The obtained data from the online survey were simultaneously tested using path analysis to test mediation model through SPSS 21.0.

Results. The results of this study indicate a direct effect of empowering leadership on employees’ innovative work behavior. Moreover, empowering leadership were also shown to be related to organizational climate for innovation. In addition, this study also revealed that organizational climate for innovation is linked to employees’ innovative work behavior. Furthermore, the expected mediating effect of organizational climate for innovation in the relationship between empowering leadership on employees’ innovative work behavior was proven.

Conclusions. The research conclusion is empowering leadership have direct and indirect effect on employees’ innovative work behavior via organizational climate for innovation. This study has indicated that organizational climate for innovation partially mediates the relationship between empowering leadership on employees’ innovative work behavior. In addition, both empowering leadership and organizational climate for innovation play important roles in explaining employees’ innovative work behavior.

Added-Values. The reported study contributes to enhancing the knowledge of the roles of how empowering leadership stimulating employees’ innovative work behavior via organizational climate for innovation in manufacture industry. This study also provide a new insight into the nature of the relationship between empowering leadership, organizational climate for innovation and innovative work behavior. This is because this paper specifically examines whether empowering leadership are linked to employees’ innovative work behavior via organizational climate for innovation in manufacture industry. Furthermore, based on the study findings, an important practical managerial implication is take organizational climate for innovation into account and consequently to develop and implement strategies followed by necessary actions to manage organizational climate for innovation at manufacture industry. In addition, managers should be aware of their empowering practices, as well as focusing on the organizational climate for innovation and innovative work behavior of their followers. This is because employees’ innovative work behavior can be enhanced by empowering leaders with the development of organizational climate for innovation. This suggests that the emergence of employees’ innovative work behaviors can not occur without the active role of empowering leaders creating an organizational climate that supports innovation in their work units.

Keywords: empowering leadership; innovative work behavior; organizational climate for innovation

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