Is workload good or bad for employee innovation? Workload and innovative work behavior are widely studied research topics. However, the relationship between them is not well understood. As a result, there is a lack of evidence-based knowledge that could inform managers and organizations on how to boost workplace innovation in demanding work contexts. Building on the job demands–resources model, the present study posits that workload relates to innovative behavior through work engagement. Specifically, we argue that this indirect relationship exhibits an inverted U-shaped pattern in which workload is most likely to benefit innovative behavior when it is moderate. We further identify mindfulness as an important moderator that influences individuals’ ability to manage stress. In support of these predictions, three studies – a two-wave time-lagged study of 160 employees from various Canadian firms, a three-wave time-lagged study of 153 employees from US firms, and a two-wave panel study of 208 employees from US firms – found work engagement mediated the inverted U-shaped relationship between workload and innovative behavior. Moreover, when mindfulness was high, intermediate levels of workload were associated with increased innovative behavior through enhanced work engagement (Studies 1 and 2). We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.

Research investigating the relationship between organizational affective commitment and employee innovation has yielded scarce and inconsistent findings. This study examined the role of participative leadership in a team as a boundary condition of the effectiveness of organizational affective commitment predicting employee innovation. Data were collected from 343 employees in 34 teams from different Italian companies. The results from hierarchical linear modelling analysis indicated that the relationship between organizational affective commitment and employee innovation was stronger when team-level participative leadership was high. Our findings provide meaningful insights regarding the contextual conditions that strengthen the impact of organizational commitment on workplace innovation. La investigación sobre la relación entre el compromiso organizacional afectivo y la innovación del empleado ha producido hallazgos escasos e inconsistentes. Este estudio examinó el papel del liderazgo participativo en un equipo como condición límite de la efectividad del compromiso organizacional afectivo para predecir la innovación del empleado. Los datos fueron obtenidos de 343 empleados en 34 equipos de diferentes compañías italianas. Los resultados de análisis de modelamiento lineal jerárquico indicaron que la relación entre el compromiso organizacional afectivo y la innovación del empleado era más fuerte cuando el liderazgo participativo a nivel de equipo era alto. Nuestros hallazgos proporcionan claves significativas sobre las condiciones contextuales que refuerzan el impacto del compromiso organizacional sobre la innovación en el trabajo.

Senior managers play a fundamental role in organizations. They shape organizational strategy and culture, set the mission, including opportunities for new markets, and construct the business models. Their commitment to the organization is vital to organizational performance, yet research on personality traits of senior managers and their commitment to organizations is limited. Drawing on self-affirmation theory, we investigate the consequences of senior managers’ ‘Dark Triad Traits’ (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) for their organizational commitment. We use the three-component model developed by Allen and Meyer (J Occup Psychol 63:1–18, 1990) to distinguish affective, continuance, and normative commitment. Our findings from a dataset of 394 senior French managers collected between 2017 and 2018 show that narcissism positively affects continuance commitment and normative commitment. This study contributes to a neglected stream of research investigating the relationship between Dark Triad traits and organizational commitment; contributes to ‘destigmatizing’ Dark Triad traits, often considered problematic for individuals; and adds to the minimal research currently on manager personality and organizational commitment.