Co-frequency resonance: the effect of leader-follower psychological capital congruence on employee innovative behaviour

ABSTRACTWhile prior studies have indicated a positive correlation between followers’ psychological capital (PsyCap) and their innovative behaviour, there has been limited exploration of the congruence effect of leader and follower PsyCap in predicting innovative behaviour. Overlooking the congruence effect of leader-follower PsyCap may lead to an overstatement of the benefits of followers’ PsyCap in shaping innovative behaviour, resulting in an inaccurate understanding of its antecedents. To address this gap, this study draws on the person-environment fit theory, specifically the person-supervisor fit theory, to examine how congruence and incongruence of PsyCap between leaders and followers influence innovative behaviour. Polynomial regression analyses were conducted with data from 55 leaders and 264 followers in China. The results demonstrate that the higher alignment of PsyCap levels between leaders and followers, the better the leader-member exchange (LMX). Moreover, a high level of leader-follower PsyCap congruence is associated with higher LMX than a low level of congruence. In cases of incongruence, the high-low combination of leaders’ PsyCap and followers’ PsyCap is associated with lower LMX than a low-high combination. Finally, LMX mediates the relationship between leader-follower PsyCap congruence/incongruence and follower innovative behaviour. These findings emphasise the importance of congruence in leader and follower PsyCap for promoting innovative behaviour. Implications for theory and implementation are discussed.KEYWORDS: Innovative behaviourleader-member exchangepsychological capitalperson-supervisor fit theorypolynomial regression Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementThe datasets, materials, and analysis code used in this research are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Ethical approvalAll procedures performed in research involving human participants were according to the institutional and 1964 Helsinki declaration and its subsequent amendments or comparable ethical standards.Informed consentInformed Consent was obtained from all the participants of this study. Permission to reproduce material from other sources: No reproduce material from other sources.Authorship contribution statementYu Zhu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing-review and editing, Funding acquisition. Meilan Nong: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing-review and editing, Formal analysis. Wenjuan Mei: Methodology, Writing-Original draft preparation, Writing-review and editing. Lixun Zheng: Methodology, Writing-review and editing. Yanfei Wang: Investigation, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Supervision. Wei He: Investigation, Funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China under Grant [22BGL126]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant [23JNLH07]; National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [72272053]; General Foundation Program of the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science under Grant [17YJA630101]; and Excellent Young Scientists Foundation of China under Grant [71922011].