Successful organizational change is an important factor for maintaining sustainable competitive advantage and growth in today‘s rapidly changing business environment. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between empowering leadership and the commitment to organizational change of Korean employees and also examine whether risk-taking behavior mediates the above relationship. Moreover, we attempt to address the moderating role and mediated moderating role of task complexity in the relationship between risk-taking behavior and commitment to organizational change. The main hypotheses were tested using a cross-sectional design, with questionnaires administered to 275 employees working in Korean firms. The results of the empirical analysis revealed that empowering leadership was positively related to commitment to organizational change. The results also showed that risk-taking behavior positively mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ commitment to organizational change. More importantly, we found that the indirect effect of empowering leadership on commitment to organizational change via risk-taking behavior was stronger when task complexity was high. Uncovering the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ commitment to organizational change through the mediating role of risk-taking behavior and the mediated moderating role of task complexity has useful theoretical and practical implications. The limitations of the study are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Previous studies have shown that enhancing employees’ innovative behavior can facilitate organizations’ sustainable competitiveness. This study investigated the relationship between authentic leadership and employees’ innovative behavior in Korean manufacturing and service companies. Moreover, the study examined the complex processes and conditions underlying this relationship. The results indicated that authentic leadership was significantly related to employees’ innovative behavior and that leader–member exchange mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and employees’ innovative behavior. Additionally, organizational learning culture moderated the relationship between leader–member exchange and employees’ innovative behavior. Finally, organizational learning culture moderated the mediating effect of authentic leadership on innovative behavior via leader–member exchange. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings as well as the study’s limitations for future research directions.

Modern organizational environments encounter serious competition and paradoxical situations. This study discusses the effect of paradoxical leadership on overcoming competitive and paradoxical situations happening in the Korean workplace. More specifically, it investigates the dynamic relationship between paradoxical leadership and involvement in creative tasks in a Korean context and examines whether creative self-efficacy positively mediates this relationship. Our research design addresses the moderating role and moderated mediating role of task complexity in the relationship between paradoxical leadership and the involvement in creative tasks via creative self-efficacy. The main hypotheses were tested by using a cross-sectional design and administering questionnaires to 268 employees working in Korean firms. Empirical analysis revealed that paradoxical leadership is positively related to involvement in creative tasks and creative self-efficacy and that creative self-efficacy positively mediated the relationship between paradoxical leadership and involvement in creative tasks. Importantly, as the relationship between paradoxical leadership and creative self-efficacy depends on task complexity, the mediated relationship was effective under high task complexity. Uncovering the relationship between paradoxical leadership and involvement in creative tasks with the mediating role of creative self-efficacy and the moderated mediating role of task complexity can provide useful theoretical and managerial implications.