How can we boost learning and vitality? the influence of perceived organizational support on innovative behavior

Employees, as innovators, crucially affect an organization’s survival and development through innovative behavior. Organizations often anticipate active, long-term innovation from employees, which requires them to have a proactive personality, mental vitality, and engage in continual learning. Drawing from organizational support theory and conservation of resources theory, this study employs a moderated mediation model to investigate the effect of organizational factors and employee behavior on innovative behavior. We further hypothesize that a proactive personality moderates these relationships and that thriving at work linearly mediates these relationships. We conducted a multi-source questionnaire study in two waves among employees and supervisors from various companies in China. This resulted in a final sample of 369 valid respondents. Our analysis revealed that perceived organizational support (POS) enhances innovative behavior through the partial mediating role of thriving at work (divided into learning and vitality dimensions). Specifically, the mediating effect of learning was found to be more pronounced than that of vitality. This indirect influence was further moderated by proactive personality: when proactive personality was high (versus low), these indirect relationships were more pronounced. In this study, we aim to deepen our understanding of the influence of POS on innovative behavior. Specifically, we differentiate between learning and vitality, which are two dimensions of thriving at work. This differentiation allows for a more nuanced comprehension of their impacts on innovative behavior. Furthermore, we highlight the moderating role of proactive personality, emphasizing how the interplay between individual traits and POS can shape innovative behavior.