Authentic Leadership and Innovative Culture on Innovative Work Behavior through Organizational Support and Readiness

Background: Construction state-owned enterprises (SOEs) operate under organizational-change dynamics and performance demands that require innovative capability from their workforce. Objective: This study sought to determine how authentic leadership and an innovative organizational culture relate to employees' innovative work behavior, treating perceived organizational support and readiness for change as mediating variables. Methods: A quantitative survey design was adopted, drawing on 415 permanent employees of Indonesian construction SOEs. The data were processed with covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) in the LISREL 8.8 program, which served to examine both the direct and indirect links among the constructs and to appraise the adequacy of the measurement and structural models. Results: All twelve hypotheses were supported, with the direct effect of authentic leadership on innovative work behavior significant under a one-tailed test at the 5% level (critical t = 1.645). Within the tested model, readiness for change recorded the largest path coefficient on innovative work behavior, whereas innovative organizational culture exerted a larger total effect than authentic leadership. Both mediators significantly carried the influence of leadership and culture onto employees' innovative behavior. Conclusion: The findings offer empirical contributions and practical implications concerning how leadership mechanisms and organizational culture foster innovative behaviors, and suggest that, within the limits of this cross-sectional model, fostering innovative work behavior in construction SOEs is associated with the joint presence of authentic leadership, an innovative culture, organizational support, and individual readiness for change.