The impact of integrative leadership on employees’ innovation performance in the context of internet-based transition: evidence from China

Purpose The internet-based transition is the major trend for Chinese organizations with increasing demands imposed on their organization and management. As the organizational structures gradually improve flexibility, employees desire respect and development to a greater degree, which has given rise to a new leadership model-integrative leadership. This paper aims to investigate the impact of integrative leadership on employee’s innovation performance through a multilevel analysis. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes the two situational factors employee psychological empowerment and human resource flexibility as the mediating factors impact the relationship between integrative leadership and employee innovation performance. Valid questionnaires were collected from 619 employees from 135 leader groups of High-tech companies in China. Findings The results show that integrative leadership has positive impact on employees’ innovation performance through its multilevel impacts on two mediation factors include psychological empowerment of employees and human resource flexibility. Research limitations/implications This research used cross-sectional studies due to constraints of research conditions. The measurements of all variables are done simultaneously, whereas the effects of integrative leadership on the development of corporations should be presented in a dynamic process. Therefore, in the future research, vertical research design should be adopted to deeply explore the effectiveness mechanism of integrative leadership in the context of corporate internet-based transition. Practical implications In the internet era, leaders cannot blindly pursue organizational performance. They must establish a flexible organizational structure and institutions to provide a platform for employee development, and integrative leaders need to pay attention to inspire the potential of employees and stimulate the enthusiasm of employees. Originality/value This study investigates a new leadership-integrative leadership and the relationship between integrative leadership and innovation performance in the context of Internet-based transitional Chinese organizations, thereby making important theoretical contributions as well as offering practical suggestions for improving leadership efficiency and innovation performance.