Leveraging the Effect of Empowering Leadership on Innovative Work Behaviours in Higher Educational Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Parallel Mediation Model of Psychological Empowerment and Work Engagement
Author(s)
Cynthia Oduro-Nyarko , Nicholas Andoh , Monique Armstrong-Baidoo , John Lampogo ,
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Abstract
This study examines how empowering leadership enhances faculty creativity and innovative work behaviours in Ghanaian public universities, with psychological empowerment and work engagement serving as mediating mechanisms. Drawing on Self Determination Theory and the Job Demands Resources model, the study argues that empowering leaders stimulate innovation by granting autonomy, strengthening competence beliefs, promoting meaningful work, and sustaining faculty engagement. A quantitative cros- sectional survey was conducted among 408 academic staff from seven accredited public universities in Ghana. Data were analysed using SPSS version 28 and SmartPLS 4, with bootstrapping based on 5,000 resamples. The findings show that empowering leadership has a significant positive effect on creativity and innovative work behaviours. Empowering leadership also significantly predicts psychological empowerment and work engagement, while both mediators significantly enhance faculty creativity and innovative work behaviours. Psychological empowerment further exerts a significant positive effect on work engagement, confirming a complementary serial mechanism. The mediation results reveal that psychological empowerment and work engagement partially transmit the effect of empowering leadership on faculty creativity and innovative work behaviours. The study contributes to higher education leadership and innovation literature by validating an integrated motivational and resource based model within a Sub-Saharan African university context. Practically, the findings suggest that university leaders can strengthen faculty innovation by sharing decision making authority, building trust, supporting autonomy, and creating conditions that enhance empowerment and engagement.
Keywords
Effect of Empowering, Leadership, Work Behaviours, Higher Educational Institutions, Psychological Empowerment, Work Engagement
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