Does psychological safety matter for innovative behaviour in hybrid workforce? The role of proactive personality, inclusive leadership and affective climate

Purpose The study aims to understand the impact of psychological safety on employee creativity leading to innovative behaviour in a hybrid workforce. It further examines the drivers of psychological safety: inclusive leadership and affective climate as well as the interaction of employee creativity and proactive personality on innovative behaviour at remote work. Design/methodology/approach Using multi-source survey-based data, the study has been conducted in two phases for independent variables (IV) and dependent variables (DV). The first phase has gathered data for IVs from 515 team members and DVs from 105 teams’ leaders from various software development teams in the information technology and information technology enabled services sectors. The study has used component-based partial least square structural equation modelling to test various arguments developed in the paper. Findings The results of the study confirm the positive association of affective climate and inclusive leadership to psychological safety, which facilitates employee creativity leading to innovative behaviour. However, the results show there is no interaction of a proactive personality with employee creativity on innovative behaviour. Also, the results have supported the social network theory, which says that the strong ties among employees promote innovative behaviour. Practical implications According to the study, psychological safety might help strengthen and increase the social ties that bridge structural holes and improve collaboration across business units. This may encourage employee creativity, especially in remote work. Further, it highlights how employee creativity and proactive personality are important independent factors that facilitate innovative behaviour. Originality/value The study is a unique attempt to explore the role of psychological safety in enhancing creativity and innovative behaviour in hybrid mode of work setting.