The growing significance of innovation in dynamic work contexts has intensified discussions over the organizational and individual factors that influence it. Employee recognition, which refers to positive feedback regarding an employee’s contributions and performance, is influential in creating a psychologically safe environment where employees can propose valuable ideas. Furthermore, evidence suggests that psychological safety enhances employee improvisation, which involves risk-taking and diverging from established routines in response to unforeseen circumstances. Although various studies have examined the effects of leadership on innovative behaviors and the role of psychological safety in this relationship, employee recognition by the leader remains overlooked. This study examines the sequential mediating roles of psychological safety and employee improvisation in the effect of employee recognition by the leader on innovative work behaviors. The sample consists of 314 employees from Türkiye, with 43% female and 57% male participants, and 55% working in the public sector and 45% in the private sector. The research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The findings demonstrate that employee recognition has positive links to both psychological safety and employee improvisation. Also, psychological safety and employee improvisation play a sequential mediating role in the relationship between recognition and innovative behaviors.
Gerçek et al. (Mon,) studied this question.