Organizational identification of knowledge workers in India : causes, consequences and the relevance of context

Purpose: This research develops and tests a model for organizational identification (OID) in a sample of knowledge workers in India. It calls attention to the relational antecedents of OID that are often overlooked in existing literature. Strong theoretical arguments are also built for context-specific outcome behaviors such as intrinsic motivation (IM) and innovative work behavior (IWB) that are relevant to knowledge work. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 357 IT industry employees in India. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses and the path model. Findings: Strong support was found for relational antecedents of OID and the outcome variable IWB. The findings indicated that OID impacts IWB through the mediating mechanism of IM. Overall, the model demonstrated strong predictive power. Practical implications: The findings suggest that social and relational variables could be strong managerial levers to increase the feeling of belongingness experienced by knowledge workers in India. In turn, OID can impact IWB, which is a significant outcome for knowledge work. Originality/value: The study finds strong support for hypothesized relationships that have been unexplored or underexplored in mainstream OID literature. Relational antecedents were found to be strong predictors of OID in this sample. Also, the relationship between OID and IWB, an outcome behavior that is specifically relevant to knowledge-driven businesses, has not been explored earlier.