Unveiling the black box between decent work and employee innovation behavior: the roles of intrinsic motivation, work engagement, and organizational innovation climate

Enterprise innovation relies on employee innovation behavior, which is enhanced by favorable working conditions. This study analyzed data from 686 employees across 57 organizations using SPSS 25.0, Mplus 8.0, and HLM 6.08 to examine the mechanisms underlying the relationship between decent work and employee innovation behavior. The key findings are as follows: (1) Decent work is positively correlated with employee innovation behavior. (2) Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between decent work and employee innovation behavior. (3) Work engagement also mediates this relationship. (4) Intrinsic motivation and work engagement serve a chain-mediating role between decent work and employee innovation behavior. (5) Furthermore, organizational innovation climate is positively correlated with employee innovation behavior. (6) Organizational innovation climate moderates the relationship between decent work and employee innovation behavior. These findings not only reveal the latent mechanisms linking decent work to employee innovation behavior but also provide valuable insights for improving the efficiency of organizations' human resource management.