Impact of Employee Autonomy on Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) through

Employee Engagement and Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence in the

IT Sector of Twin Cities.

CHAPTER 01

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background
Being innovative is one of the most important elements for organizational success (Van
Hootegem, 2012). Innovative work behavior is very important for organizations to respond to the
technological changes and to remain competitive (Parahoo et al., 2017). Creativity at workplace
involves the initiation of ideas only while innovative behavior not only involves the initiation of
ideas but their acceptance and implementation in unique ways as well (Anderson, Potočnik, and
Zhou, 2014). It is a crucial factor to evaluate employee’s performance (Ng and Lucianetti, 2016),
and important for organization’s success and competitiveness (Giorgi and Grégoire, 2018).
Regardless of the benefits attached to the innovative work behavior, employees are not always
motivated enough to engage in such behaviors at workplace. So, in order to understand about
how employees can be motivated enough so that they can use their unique ideas for innovative
results, it is very important to examine what regulates the innovative work behavior among
employees (Scott abd Bruce, 1994). Organizations can regulate preferred behaviors among
employees by giving them autonomy about planning and scheduling their work. By doing so
employers may be able to encourage the desired behaviors and discourage the unwanted ones.
Employee autonomy is the employee’s ability to choose the place, time and way to conclude his
tasks and thus having command over when, how and where and lessens the stress and improves
the morale of the individuals and contributes towards the success of the company (Gagne and
Bhave, 2011). The concept of employee autonomy was given by early theorists e.g., it was one
of the 4 principles of scientific management given by Taylor in 1911 i.e., “about three-fourths of
the time we will work according to whatever method suits us best” (Shafritz and Hyde, 2012: p.
38). This means that giving flexibility in making the work-related decisions makes them engage
in their work that in return develops the innovative behavior in employees. So, may researchers
have highlighted autonomy as a crucial factor that organizations should address in order to
generate an engaged workforce to have innovative work environment (Budd, 2004).

Past literature abounds for the significance of employee autonomy. Spector in 1986
through a meta-analysis showed that insights of work autonomy is linked with the high job
commitment, performance etc. and it lowers the stress and turnover intention at workplace,
Mehmet in (2021), found the link between autonomy and employee satisfaction. So, autonomy is
the heart of management debates and is considered to be an important factor towards the
employee engagement that can lead to the innovative work environment. Innovative behavior
occurs when employees can practice their ideas in organizational activities like technological
development etc (Shi, 2012). For this purpose, autonomy should be given to the employees so
that they can generate as well as implement the new ideas at workplace. Apart from, autonomy,
employee engagement is very important to have innovative behavior. Recent studies suggest that
organizations are advancing their strategic planning by including employee engagement in it.
And in last few years a lot of research is conducted in order to understand the factors leading
towards the employee engagement. Study of 550 directors, conducted by Harvard Business
Review (2013) has shown that 71% of the respondents have acknowledged employee
engagement as an important factor for the success of the organization (Turner, 2020).

So, this study aims at examining the relationship between employee autonomy and IWB
in the presence of the mediating effects of employee engagement. Apart from, this emotional
intelligence is used as moderator between employee autonomy and employee engagement.
Emotional intelligence is employee’s competency which inspires individual’s ability to respond
to the environmental demands (Lynn and Lynn, 2015). It has become an important aspect at
workplace, as emotionally intelligent employees are able to understand their own and others’
emotions at workplace (Mahon et al., 2014), which enables an them to fully engaged in
performing their tasks that ultimately leads towards the IWB. Therefore, emotional intelligence
can strengthen the relationship between employee autonomy and employee engagement. This
study is carried out in the IT sector located in the twin cities of Pakistan.

Pakistan is a developing country whose growth is mainly dependent upon different

organizations and their capable workforce. For country’s better growth it is important for the
organizations to have such workforce who is having up to date knowledge and innovative ideas
to cope up with the emerging technological changes. As the world is advancing very rapidly, so
it is very important to have an innovative workforce. Like other sectors, innovative work
behavior is also very important in IT sector of Pakistan. So, the aim of this study is to find out
whether employee autonomy through employee engagement can lead to innovative work
behavior or not, and how emotional intelligence strengthens the relationship between employee
autonomy and employee engagement among the employees of IT industry of Pakistan. As
Pakistan’s IT industry is a star of economy and one of the fastest growing sectors of the country
that is contributing about 1% towards GDP. According to Digital Policy of Pakistan 2018, IT
industry is expected to reach to the target of $20 Billion by the end of 2025. So, such practice
should be encouraged that can motivate innovative behavior among employees working in IT
industry of Pakistan.

So, the rationale of the study is to investigate the association between employee
autonomy and IWB with employee engagement as mediator and emotional intelligence as
moderator between employee autonomy and employee engagement in the IT industry located in
Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Previously these variables have been studied in other cultures but
Pakistani culture is also advancing rapidly so it is very important to study the factors that can
enhance innovative ideas and behaviors at workplace.

1.2. Problem Statement

Due to globalization and technological advancements, innovation has become an
important factor for the survival of organizations and a major problem is how to motivate
innovative behavior among employees. Recent studies have shown a rapid growth in the
numbers of researches investigating the ways to encourage innovative work behavior at
workplace. As this behavior is very important for organizations in dealing with environmental
challenges and retaining their competitiveness (Parahoo et al., 2017). But regardless of the
benefits linked to the innovative work behavior, employees are not motivated enough to engage
in such behaviors at workplace. There are different factors that can motivate innovative behavior
among employees and employee autonomy is one of those factors that have gained researchers
attention in last few years. Employee autonomy is one’s ability to choose the place, time and way
to conclude his tasks and thus having command over when, how and where and it reduces the
stress while improves the morale of the individuals and contribute towards the success of the
company (Gagne and Bhave, 2011). Though there has been a lot of study focusing on how
autonomy can lead towards employee engagement e.g., Lartery (2021), found the impact of
Employee Autonomy on Employee Engagement, but literature regarding the impacts of
employee autonomy and IWB is very scarce. Also, no literature is found where emotional
intelligence is used as a moderator or employee engagement as a mediator in studying the
association between employee autonomy and innovative work behavior.

As very scarce literature is available investigating the indirect impacts of employee

autonomy and innovative work behavior, so this study attempts to extend the literature by
studying the link between employee autonomy and IWB in the presence of moderator and
mediator. Also, technology is changing rapidly in service industry specially the IT sector and for
this innovative behavior among employees can help in generation and implementation of unique
ideas to cope up with the changing marketing trends. Although a lot of studies are carried out in
other cultures like, in public sector of Singapore where the sources of autonomy are highlighted
etc (Demircioglu, 2021). But no study is carried out in Pakistani culture especially in IT industry.
Being innovative is very important for IT sector of Pakistan because it is one of the highest
revenue generating sectors. So, this study will be conducted to know how making an employee
autonomous can foster the innovative work behavior by making them engaged in their work and
how emotional intelligence can strengthen the link between employee autonomy and employee
engagement.

1.3. Literature Gap

Strategies stressing upon the approaches to innovative behavior have gained importance
in past few years (Cassiman and Valentini, 2016). For this purpose, recognizing the factors
essential for innovative behavior is very important in enhancing the employees as well as
organizational performance. And for this reason, it is important to investigate the drivers of the
innovative work behavior in every organization especially is IT industry. As employee
innovative behavior plays a very important role in gaining a sustainable competitive advantage
for organization (Shin et al., 2017). Innovation is when an employee is able to develop, promote
and implement new ideas as important components of IWB (Janssen, 2000). It can lead to
resolve the work-related issues very rapidly (Zhou and Wu, 2018), so it is very important for
organizations to have innovative work behavior among employees. So, in order to study how
individuals can be motivated to have ideas for innovative results, it is very important to first
investigate the stimulators of innovative work behavior at workplace (Scott and Bruce, 1994).
One of the stimulators of IWB may include employee autonomy. By giving autonomy,
organizations can foster the preferred behaviors among employees. Transitions have been seen in
a service industry due to changing economic trends including rapid globalization and
competition in market has increased. It determines the level of motivation in an individual and
leads to the state where an employee feels himself responsible for the outcomes of the tasks
assigned to him (Hackman and Oldham, 1975).

Studies conducted in past have shown that, allowing employees to use new and advance
technology to schedule and perform their work, results in high level of performance (Aral et al.
2007) and promotes innovative work behavior among the workers (Wang, 2021). A lot of other
researchers have studied autonomy as a factor that leads towards the employee performance
(Saragih, 2011), commitment (Sisodia and Das, 2013) and trust building towards the
management (Lu et al., 2017). Employee engagement is very important contributor towards the
success of any organization. It is important for both employees as well as organizations and is
linked with the positive outcomes for individuals and organizations. Therefore, along with
employee autonomy, employee engagement has also received a lot of attention from researchers.
Recently, a lot of studies e.g., Lartey (2021) has seen the impact of employee autonomy on
employee engagement. Besides examining the mediating role of employee engagement this study
has also focused on finding out the moderating role of emotional intelligence between employee
autonomy and employee engagement. According Goleman (1998), emotional intelligence is
related to the success of the business and promotes emotional and intellectual development. It
has now become an important aspect at workplace as it helps the employees in tackling the
negative situations very effectively (Mahon et al., 2014). There are a lot of researches that have
investigated the link between emotional intelligence and employee engagement, e.g., Sudibjoa
and Sutarjia (2020), have studied how emotional intelligence can lead to increased emotional
intelligence among teachers. But very few studies have focused on the moderating role of
emotional intelligence, e.g., Akhlaghimofrada and Farmaneshb (2021); have found the
moderating role of emotional intelligence between conflict and knowledge hiding. But no prior
research is found examining how emotional intelligence can strengthen the relationship between
employee autonomy and employee engagement. So, this study adds a new dimension in existing
literature by investigating the role of emotional intelligence as moderator between autonomy and
engagement.

Although, variables like employee autonomy, engagement and IWB are studies
worldwide but very little evidence is found in Pakistan’s context specifically in IT industry. So,
this research aims at finding out how autonomy among employees of IT industry can enhance
IWB. As the current era is the era of rapid technological advancements, so IT sector of any
country should be efficient enough to tackle with the changing trends. And in Pakistan, IT
industry contributes to about 1% to the GDP which makes it one of the stars of Pakistan
economy. So, this tends to find out how employee autonomy can enhance IWB through the
intervening effects of employee engagement and buffering effects of emotional intelligence
between employee autonomy and employee engagement. As in today’s era, to respond to the
technological advancements and stumbling market, employees innovative work behavior is very
important for organizations to succeed.

1.4. Research Questions

While studying the relationship between employee autonomy and innovative work behavior, this
study aims to answer following questions:

 Does employee autonomy lead to the innovative work behavior?

 Does employee engagement have a mediating role between employee autonomy and
innovative work behavior?
 Does emotional intelligence moderate the relationship between employee autonomy and
employee engagement?

1.5. Research Objective

Following are the main objectives of the study:

 To study the effect of employee autonomy on innovative work behavior.

 To study the intervening role of employee engagement between employee autonomy and
innovative work behavior.
  To study the role of emotional intelligence as moderator between employee autonomy
and employee engagement, such that if it strengthens the relationship or not.

1.6. Significance of Study

The significance of this study is that, it presents an inclusive assessment to explain the
link between employee autonomy and employee innovative work behavior. This study will assist
in understanding the role of employee autonomy in brining innovative work behavior among
employees particularly in the emotional intelligence as moderator and employee engagement as
mediator. Although there is a vast literature available highlighting the association between
employee autonomy and innovative work behavior, but the moderating role of emotional
intelligence and mediating role employee engagement at a time makes it even more interesting.

This study will be a valuable addition for future researchers as in this study the link
between employee autonomy and innovative work behavior is examined in the IT companies of
twin cities of Pakistan. Although many researchers have studied the association between
employee autonomy and IWB but very little researches are found in the Pakistani context. So,
this study will aid in understanding the Pakistani culture.

1.7. Definition of Variables

1.7.1. Employee Autonomy

Employee autonomy is defined as the ability for the employee to decide the way, the time
and the place to complete the tasks assigned to him (Chambers, 2004; Thompson and Prottas,
2005). At any workplace, it is a situation that lessens the stress, boost up the morale and adds
towards the well-being of the employees (Gagne and Bhave, 2011). As it refers to degree to
which employees have freedom to schedule and determine the procedures to fulfill their duties
(Hackman and Oldham, 1975, p. 165). It lets employees free from the external controls and
procedures (Deci et al., 1989) and motivates employees in undertaking and scheduling their
work.

1.7.2. Emotional Intelligence

Salovey and Mayer (1990) defined emotional intelligence as one’s own ability to
understand others behavior and feelings and controlling his own emotions in such a manner that
improves the living (Gibbs, 1995). Salim and Nasir (2010) defined it as the capability that one
owns and reflects in any situation. So, it is a successful understanding of one’s own abilities as
well as others, having good relationship with them and adapting to the environmental changes to
become more successful (Jorfi, et. al., 2010). It accelerates flexible planning, efficient decision
making, innovative thinking and persistency for dealing difficult tasks (Salovey and Mayer,
1990) and has positive effects over employee’s satisfaction and engagement at workplace
(Brunetto, Teo Shacklock, and Wharton, 2012).

1.7.3. Employee engagement

Employee engagement is defined as degree to which people express and engage
themselves cognitively, emotionally and physically in any role (Kahn 1990). Thinking about
management and their work environment is related to the cognitive expressions of employees,
while feeling either positive or negative about workplace and attitude towards employer comes
under emotional expression. And the physical energy that an employee needs to perform its
duties relates with the physical expression. It is basically the employees’ readiness and capability
to assist their organization in gaining competitiveness (Perrin’s Global Workforce Study, 2003).
Robinson et al. (2004) stated it as positive behavior reflected by an employee towards its
workplace and values. As an engaged employee has awareness about its organization’s workings,
and he also works with others to improve his performance to benefit his organization and in
return employers must work to keep their employees engaged by developing a two-way relation
among them. In this way an employee feels encouraged and put his best to achieve
organizational success (Ewing et al., 2019).

1.7.4. Innovative Work Behavior (IWB)

IWB is defined as deliberated generation, promotion and recognition of new notions
related to one’s work or organization (Janssen and Van Yperen, 2004). It is related to the three
basic elements of IWB i.e., creation, promotion and implementation of unique ideas that helps in
gaining organization’s competitiveness (Yuan & Woodman, 2010). So, it is basically the
articulation and application of new ideas (Zhou and Wu, 2018). It is very essential for any
organization to respond to the changes in the work environment to retain its effectiveness
(Devloo et al., 2014).
 CHAPTER 02

2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMEN

2.1. Theoretical background

2.1.1 Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

Self-determination theory was proposed by Deci and Ryan in 1985 in mid-1980. It
explains the procedure through which individual’s develop motivation and how it inspires the
human behavior (Rayan and Deci, 2017). SDT is one of the leading theories of motivation that
relates the motivation to an efficient and effective behavior at workplace. This theory says that
human behaviors and abilities have a connection with SDT and engagement at workplace. It
presumes that people are attracted towards the psychological growth and thus towards learning
new things and making new connections in return (Rayan and Deci, 2020). This theory has also
demonstrated the importance of autonomy at workplace. In terms of SDT, autonomy refers to the
endorsement of one’s actions to the highest levels of reflection (Deci & Ryan, 2007). As when
an individual feels himself autonomous, he feels free to choose the ways to accomplish different
goals that are important for his success and achievements (Demircioglu, 2021). Rayan and Deci
(2017) argued that human behaviors are greatly influenced by the personal as well as contextual
factors of motivation. With regard to the self- determined end of this theory, it reflects that an
individual shows engagement in any task when it results in enjoyment and fulfillment of personal
interests (Ntoumanis et al., 2021).

This study has used the SDT to study autonomy and IWB and to test mediating effects of
employee engagement between both. Also, being a theory of motivation SDT also helps in
highlighting the emotional intelligence among employees. This theory states that employees at
workplace have the tendencies toward growth and they always strive to satisfy their needs for
autonomy and competence (Van den Broeck et al., 2016). It is because autonomy affects one’s
competence and is related to one’s self-determination (Nie et al., 2015) this in return makes an
employee feel worthy and increases the employee engagement. Centralized and rigid
organizational structures make an employee feel less worthy and power less, that lowers the
motivation and hence decreased the commitment and engagement (Kakabadse, 1986). So, when
an employee is given autonomy, where he is capable of choosing its work schedule and can
make work related decisions at his own, he/she will be more engaged towards the task. This will
lead to the development of innovative work behavior. As an employee feels autonomous, he/she
enjoys doing his/her work and tries to find out more opportunities around him/her which helps in
the generation of innovative ideas that in return enhances the innovative work behavior. Also,
employee autonomy satisfies one’s emotions and develops the ability to understand them
properly. So, an emotionally intelligent person understands his own emotions and others as well,
that result in the arousal of employee engagement and leads to perspective ends.

2.2. Employee Autonomy and Innovative Work Behavior

The word autonomy is derived from a Greek word ‘autonomos’. It consists of two words,
auto means self and nomos means to rule and their combined meaning refers to self-rule. As,
Greeks were following autonomy in ruling their states and were autonomous in making state
related decisions (Agich, 1994). In corporate setting, autonomy was defined by Heckman and
Oldham in 1976. It is referred to as the degree to which an employee has freedom in planning
and scheduling the certain tasks as per his/her own choice. Motivation and autonomy at
workplace are the most important elements in accelerating the employee engagement and
reducing the work stress (Davis and Wilson, 2000), this thinking has changed the research trends
as well and several studies in organizational behaviors have developed three important
perspectives on employee autonomy: autonomy to schedule work, choose work methods and
decision -making autonomy (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006). Employee/job autonomy is one of
the important parts of job design within in the domain of HRM (Hackman and Oldham, 1975).
Employee autonomy is one of the key dimensions given to each employee that leads towards the
better performance and thus results in innovative work behavior (Theurer et al., 2018).

Innovative work behavior is defined as the deliberated generation and implementation of

new insights which is related to the current job role and is suitable for the organizational
performance (Momeni, Ebrahimpour, and Ajirloo, 2014). Innovation is considered an important
aspect for firms and countries to remain competitive (Van Hootegem, 2012). In any service
industry, innovation is considered very important to fulfill customer’s demands (Hjalager, 2010).
In any organization, its workforce is an integral part to bring and implement innovative ideas.
Workforce is the key source of unique ideas, not only responsible for the generation of ideas but
their implementation as well. Therefore, organizations are trying to develop such environment
where innovation among employees is encouraged and they are motivated towards the generation
and implementation of new and unique ideas (Li and Hsu, 2018). In order to motivate innovative
work behavior, employee autonomy is considered to be an important stimulator. Autonomy is
among core dimensions given to the employees as per their position that leads to motivation,
better performance, commitment and satisfaction. At workplace, individuals when perceives
themselves being empowered will feel that their personal skills and abilities match to the
working systems, this will encourage them and they will invest their mental abilities in finding
new opportunities (Zhou and Wu, 2018). According to the concept of SDT, when an employee is
given autonomy, it improves one’s self-determination and he considers himself responsible for
the tasks assigned to him. This behavior motivates him to perform well encourages him to think
out of the box and he tries to find out the new and unique ways that can result in personal as well
as organizational success.

So, on the basis of the above arguments, following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: Employee autonomy is positively related to Innovative Work Behavior.

2.3. Employee Engagement as Mediator

Research conducted in past few years has shown that employee engagement is linked
positively with individuals as well as organizational outcomes. It is considered as an important
source to gain competitiveness (Barrick et al., 2015). At workplace employee engagement has
also been defined in terms of passion, energy or one’s effort in completing the assigned task
(Macey and Schneider, 2008). Now mangers at workplace approve that for increased
productivity and success, this era demands more effectiveness than before. As due to
globalization, every business is attempting to increase its performance to remain in competition.
And this effectiveness is only possible when employees are fully engaged and responsible for
their tasks. So, employee engagement is an important factor that contributes towards
organizational success.
 Employee engagement is defined as employee’s commitment and eagerness for work.
According to Robinson et al., 2004, employee engagement is a constructive approach towards
organizational success, but to retain it employers also have to give best to their employees. As it
is a two-way communication process. When an employee’s engagement is high, he/she is not
only motivated to work for his/her personal goals rather he puts his/her best in achieving
organizational goals as well (Soane et al., 2012). So, effective engagement can help in achieving
success. Most of the stimulators of employee engagement are non-financial in nature, which
means that organizations do not invest in financial terms to improve engagement rather non-
financial motivators like; employee autonomy can help in achieving this. Engaged workforce is
very important for successful operations of business activities. According to the 2017 report of
Gallup's State of the Global Workplace, only 15% of the total workforce in 155 countries is
engaged in its work and all others exhibit less engaged attitude. So, engaging employees in their
work is a challenging task for management.

One of the stimulators of employee engagement is employee autonomy which is an

extent to which an individual has freedom in planning and scheduling the certain tasks as per his
own choice. It means that employees will retain in any workplace and will restate the positive
benefits attached with engagement in tasks, if they perceive benefits in terms of autonomy they
will be highly engaged in their tasks. This was also confirmed among the government employees
in Pakistan (Raza et al., 2017). So, with this it can be proposed that, when employees are given
autonomy regarding their work, they get motivated and thus reflect high level of engagement,
which in return results in innovative work behavior. Service sector is finding out the ways to
encourage the employees to have innovative ideas while fulfilling the market demands (Obeng
and Boachie, 2018). By doing so, organization can improve its efficiency that can lead to gain
competitive edge (Marriam and Ramli, 2019). As per SDT, when autonomy need is satisfied, it
results in high work engagement by employees (Baard, Deci, and Ryan, 2004). Because
engagement is seen either as an involvement or energy that one individual is investing in
fulfilling his tasks. So, when employees are given autonomy and they have choice to decide how,
when and where they can complete their task, they will be more motivated and will enjoy doing
it which means that they will be having high engagement. When they will be highly engaged,
they will try to fetch their environment and look for new and unique ideas which lead to the
development of innovative work behavior.
 Hence, based on the above literature review following hypothesis has been developed:

H2: Employee engagement plays a mediating role between employee autonomy and Innovative
Work Behavior.

2.4. Emotional Intelligence as Moderator

Today’s business environment is dynamic and changing rapidly due to the changing
market trends and in such environment emotional intelligence can help managers and workforce
to cope up with them. It plays a key role in encouraging enthusiastic and committed employees,
who are passionate about their work and are fully engaged with their tasks. Past literature has
shown that employees having higher level of emotional intelligence positively affect the overall
employees as well as organization’s performance (Bar-on, 2010). This term was first defined by
Salovey and Mayer in 1990. Its vital aspects include the understanding and controlling of
emotions. It accelerates innovative thinking, improves task related planning and decision-making
(Salovey and Mayer, 1990). In some situations, it is also viewed as the capability that an
individual owns and reflect in the encountering situation (Salim and Nasir, 2010). Basically, it is
an effective understanding of an individual’s own and others’ emotions and abilities (Jorfi, et. al.,
(2010). It can reinforce the supportive behavior, where an individual helps others and thus
making workplace’s environment better as it includes the ability that helps in managing the
emotions and picking up the right emotional signal in right time (Akhlaghimofrada,2021)

For some researchers, it is an inborn characteristic while some states that it can be learnt.
Enhanced emotional skills are very important for successful running of any business. It is very
helpful in developing a creative working condition where employees are fully engaged in their
assigned tasks. It is not just good for one’s own self but for others as well. So, according to the
objective of current study, emotional intelligence acts a moderator between employee autonomy
and employee engagement. Its concept is referred to analyze and realize one’s own as well as
others’ emotions to positive ends. Individuals with high emotional intelligence are less
susceptible to have the negative behavior. Rather they mold the disengaged situation to the
engaged one by efficiently using their emotions (Westerlaken et al., 2009). So, at workplace
when an employee has the autonomy over its work, he/she will be engaged in it whole heartedly.
In this situation, an employee who is having high emotional intelligence will be less concerned
about the events happening all around. Rather they he invests his/her energy in finding out ways
to enhance the work even more and he will positively influence others as well, making them get
engaged in their work (Tripathy, 2018).

So, based on above argument, it is hypothesized that:

H3: Emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between employee autonomy and
employee engagement in a way that relationship is stronger when employee shows high
emotional intelligence.

2.5. Theoretical framework

Emotional
intelligence

H3
Employee Employee
H2 IWB
autonomy engagement

H1

Figure 1 Theoretical Framework

Independent Variable: Employee autonomy

Dependent Variable: IWB

Moderator: Emotional intelligence

Mediator: Employee engagement

 CHAPTER 03

3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter highlights the basic procedure and structure used for data collection and its
evaluation. Methodology assists in equipping the ways to carry out any research using different
sources. For this purpose, Saunder’s research onion process was used.

3.1 Research philosophy

Research philosophy highlights the assumptions and beliefs that supports the research
approach and can lead to examine any research problem. This study is conducted using
positivism philosophy. It is useful in establishing the hypothetical deductive approach where a
huge population is targeted to collect data using survey methods. In this study hypotheses are
developed reviewing the already existing literature, then analyzed on the basis of the basis of
data collected through structured questionnaires. Hence the philosophical stance of this study is
positivism

3.2. Research Approach

There are two different approaches of any research i.e., inductive and deductive
approach. Inductive approach starts with collecting data to establish a theory while deductive
approach is established on the academic literature and starts with testing the hypothesis using
quantitative research design. For this current study deductive approach had been used also
known as top-down approach followed by general to specific findings. As to find the proposed
relationship and hypotheses development the study needs some already existing knowledge. To
test the proposed hypotheses, the data were collected using the primary data source i.e.,
structured questionnaires.
3.3. Research Strategy
The current study has implemented the quantitative research strategy. For this purpose,
structured and defined method was used for data collection.

3.4 Time Horizon

This study is causal in nature and time to conduct this study was very short, so data were
collected once from the respondents through cross sectional survey to finish the study on time.

3.5 Data Collection Method

Data were gathered through the structured questionnaires from the individuals working in
the IT companies like; whizpool, Ikonic, united sol, Intelicle ltd etc. Responses of the individuals
were kept private and 100% guarantee was ensured to the respondents. Questionnaires were
distributed both personally and through mail.

3.5.1 Sampling Technique

There are two widely used sampling techniques, i.e.: Probability and Nonprobability. For
this study data were collected through convenient sampling, one of the non-probability
techniques. This technique is one of the widely used techniques in which data is collected
through contact persons etc. Utilizing this technique helped us in saving time, energy and helped
us gathering data in a very span of time.

3.5.2 Population and Sample size

Population for this study included the employees working in the IT sector of Rawalpindi
and Islamabad. This sector is one of the major sectors contributing towards the annual revenue of
Pakistan. Sample size will be selected in accordance to the Kerjcie and Morgan Table (1970).
For this reason, the average population of the employees working in top IT companies was taken
and then sample size of 250 was selected.

3.5.3 Unit of analysis (UOA)

UOA is an important aspect while conducting any research. Individuals working in
organizations are called unit and a single element is called unit of analysis, whose selection is
dependent upon the time and purpose of the study. The present research was grounded on the
thinking and reflections of the individuals only, so individual employee was the unit of analysis.
3.5.4 Data Analysis tool
Data was analyzed using Smart PLS3 (Partial Least Square). Partial least square was used
as it is user-friendly software and has been widely used by different researchers in different areas
including human resource management (Ringle et al., 2020). Through Smart PLS3 confirmatory
factor analysis, moderation as well as mediation analysis was checked.

3.6. Instrumentation
Instrument used for collecting data will be the survey questionnaires comprising of
structured questions. And each response against each item will be taken on 5-point Likert scale,
i.e. 1= strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree.

3.6.1. Employee Autonomy

For employee autonomy, 9 items scale given by Breaugh’s Scale (1985) was adopted.
Sample item included; ‘the job allows me to make my own decisions about how to schedule my
work etc.’

3.6.2. Emotional Intelligence

For emotional intelligence, 10 items scale developed by K. A. Davies et al., (2010) was
used. Sample item includes: I have control over my emotions etc.

3.6.3. Employee Engagement

For employee engagement, 9 items version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale given
by Schaufeli et al., (2006) was adopted. Sample item included: At my job, I feel strong and
vigorous etc.

3.6.4. innovative Work Behavior (IWB)

For IWB, 9 items scale given by Janssen (2000) was used. Its sample item included:
Creating new ideas for difficult issues etc.
 4. DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter summarizes the final outcomes and findings of current study and it comprise
of descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Confirmatory factor analysis and mediation and
moderation analysis.

4.1 Demographics Analysis

Demographic analysis is done to have a detailed view of characteristics and traits of
respondents. This analysis includes age, gender, education and company name and is performed
to have a quick look on response of respondents.

Table 1 Demographic analysis

Variables Options Frequency Percent

Gender Male 131 59.0

Female 89 41.1

Age 20-30 104 46.8

30-40 58 26.1

40-50 35 15.8

Above 50 25 11.3

Education Intermediate 28 12.6

Bachelors 97 43.6

Master 88 39.6

PhD 09 4.06

Experience 1-5 87 39.2

5-10 65 29.3

10-15 39 17.6

Above 15 31 13.9
 This aspect of analysis deals with personal data on respondents of the questionnaire given
to them. Most of the respondents were male which is 59% and 41% were female among 222
respondents. Age is analyzed among responding employees, 46.8% are of age group 20-30,
26.1% are of age group 30-40, 15.8% are of age group of 40-50 and 11.3% fall in age group of
above 50. Moreover, education level of employees was analyzed and 12.6% fall under the
educational level of Intermediate. Respondents having Bachelor degree was 43.6% and 39.6%
employees having master’s degree. degrees while 4.06% respondents fall under the category of
PhD. As far as experience is concerned 39.2% respondents having experience of 1-5 and 29.3%
respondents having experience of 5-10 years, respondents having experience of 10-15 are 17.6%
and 13.9% respondents having above 15 years of experience.

4.2 Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics of employee autonomy, employee engagement, emotional
intelligence and innovative work behavior variable are shown in the table below. It indicates and
summarizes sample size and observation about data. It gives us basic information about data
which includes Mean, Standard Deviation. Main purpose of descriptive statistics is to provide a
large sum of data in summarized and arranged form.

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics

Variables Mean S. D Skewness Kurtosis

EA 3.2352 1.06188 -.233 -1.388

EE 2.6982 1.20686 .256 -1.330

EI 2.5698 1.22362 .423 -1.375

IWB 3.2322 1.20011 .423 -1.431

Note(s): EA= Employee autonomy, EE= Employee engagement, EI= Emotional intelligence, IWB= Innovative work
behavior, S. D= Standard deviation
 Mean values explain the level of agreement and disagreement of respondents with the
question. Mean value of employee autonomy is 3.23 and SD is 1.06, mean value of employee
engagement is 2.69 and value of standard deviation is 1.206 while mean value and standard
deviation of emotional intelligence is 2.56 and 1.22. Coming to the last variable which is
innovative work behavior, the value of mean is 3.23 and value of SD is 1.20. To check the
normality Skewness and kurtosis tests were conducted. Values obtained in table 2 show that
values of both Skewness and Kurtosis were within the normal range of -3 and +3, showing the normality
of data.

4.3 Correlation analysis

Table 3 Correlation analysis

Variables EA EE EI IWB

EA 1

EE .597** 1

EI .568** .812** 1

IWB .674** .534** .471** 1

Note(s): EA= Employee autonomy, EE= Employee engagement, EI= Emotional intelligence, IWB= Innovative work
behavior

Correlation analysis is shown in table 3. Correlation analysis is used to examine direct

and indirect relationships among variables using Pearson coefficient correlation (Cohen et al.,
2013). Correlation value lie between -1 to +1 representing the perfect negative and perfect
positive correlation respectively. Values less than 0.4 shows weak correlation and the values
from 0.5-0.7 show moderate correlation, while values ranging between 0.8-1 reflect strong
correlation between two variables (Cohen,1992).

As per results shown in above table, the correlation among employee autonomy and
employee engagement is .597 which show moderate correlation and significant at 0.01%
confidence interval. The positive correlation coefficient depicts direct and positive relationships
between these two variables. The value of correlation among employee autonomy and emotional
intelligence is .568 which shows moderate correlation and significant at 0.01% confidence
interval. The correlation coefficient is positive which depicts a direct and positive relationship
between these two variables. The value of correlation among employee autonomy and innovative
work behavior is .674 which shows moderate correlation and significant at 0.01% confidence
interval. The correlation coefficient is positive which depicts a direct and positive relationship
between these two variables.

The value of correlation among employee engagement and emotional intelligence is .812
which show strong correlation and significant at 0.01 of confidence interval. Positive value of
correlation coefficient shows the direct relationship. Employee engagement and innovative work
behavior have moderate correlations because the value is .534 and significant at 0.01 of
confidence interval. The correlation coefficient is positive which depicts a direct and positive
relationship between these two variables. The value of correlation among emotional intelligence
and innovative work behavior is .471 which shows weak correlation and significant at 0.01 of
confidence interval. The positive sign depicts a direct relationship between these two variables.

4.4 Measurement Model

4.4.1 Model Fit
First of all, Measurement model was calculated. It helps in finding model fitness. As far
as model fit was concerned, the value obtained for SRMR was 0.079 which is lower than the
threshold value of 0.1 and showing acceptable fit. The value of NFI was 0.709 (closer to 1), and
the value of RMS was 0.188 (closer to zero) shows the acceptable fit of the model (Hair et al.,
2019)

4.4.2 Construct Reliability and Validity

Table 4 Loadings, Reliability and Validity

Variables Items Loadings Reliability

and Validity
 EA1 0.721

EA2 0.759 α = 0.859

EA3 0.778 CR =0.914

EA4 0.866 AVE = 0.640

Employee Autonomy EA5 0.730

EA6 0.726

EA7 0.721

EA8 0.828

EA9 0.784

EI1 0.874

EI2 0.660 α = 0.932

CR= 0.936
EI3 0.799
AVE = 0.745
Emotional EI4 0.780
Intelligence
EI5 0.804

EI6 0.704

EI7 0.810

EI8 0.813

EI9 0.783

EI10 0.766

EE1 0.880

Employee EE2 0.868 α = 0.859,

 Engagement EE3 0.912 CR = 0.915

EE4 0.868 AVE = 0.780

EE5 0.786

EE6 0.876

EE7 0.908

EE8 0.860

EE9 0.880

IWB1 0.856

IWB2 0.890 α = 0.928,

CR= 0.914
Innovative Work IWB3 0.830
Behavior AVE = 0.750
IWB4 0.762

IWB5 0.830

IWB6 0.906

Note(s): EA= Employee autonomy, EE= Employee engagement, EI= Emotional intelligence, IWB= Innovative work
behavior

After model fitness construct’s reliability and validity was checked. To check the internal
reliability of all factors, Cronbach alpha was calculated which show how closely related the set
of items with each other. If the value of Cronbach alpha and composite reliability is 0.7 or
greater then it lies in acceptable range (Hair et al., 2006). Results obtained in table 03, show that
data is reliable as the values for Cronbach alpha and composite reliability are within the
threshold range i.e., greater than 0.7. After reliability CFA was conducted and the results show
that factor lloadings of all the items, were above the threshold of 0.7. Convergent validity was
tested through average variance extracted (AVE) and the value of AVE for EE is 0.780, EA
(0.640), IWB (0.750) and for EI is 0.745 which are also above the threshold of 0.5 and lie in
acceptable range. Hence, all the values shown in above table are in acceptable range, as per
previous studies (Sreen et al., 2021).
4.4.3. Discriminant Validity
It was confirmed by calculating the intercorrelation values among the variables.

Table 5 Discriminant Validity using Fornell and Larcker Criterion

Variables EA EE EI IWB

EA 0.800

EE 0.607 0.833

EI 0.575 0.818 0.863

IWB 0.695 0.544 0.477 0.866

Note(s): EA= Employee autonomy, EE= Employee engagement, EI= Emotional intelligence, IWB= Innovative work
behavior

The values of the discriminant validity shown in table were obtained using Fornell and
Larcker criterion (1981). According to table 5, all the values calculated were less than 0.80 as
well as smaller than the square of AVE.

4.4.4 Collinearity Statistics

Table 6 Collinearity statistics

Variables VIF Tolerance

Employee Engagement 1.583 0.6317

Employee Autonomy 1.583 0.6317

Emotional Intelligence 2.290 0.4366

In order to check biases in data variance inflation factor (VIF) and Tolerance was
calculated. Association between variables is known as collinearity and used to check biases in
data. According to Ringle et al., (2015) the recommended range of VIF is 1-5 and recommended
range of Tolerance is 0-1. There is no issue of multicollinearity between constructs as the values
lie under recommended range.
4.5 Structural model
4.5.1 Direct effects
Table 7 Direct effects

B T P R2 F2

Employee Autonomy-> Innovative work

behavior
0.578 9.566 0.000 0.507 0.150

Employee Autonomy-> Employee

Engagement 0.281 4.749 0.000 0.719 0.11

Employee engagement-> Innovative

work behavior 0.193 3.389 0.001 ------- 0.05

Direct effects are exhibited in table 6 showing that T-value is 9.565 and P-Value is 0.000.
The direct path is significant which shows that employee autonomy has an impact on innovative
work behavior. So, H1 is accepted. Above table also shows that T value is greater than 2 and
significant with p-value less than 0.05 for all the path relationships.

4.7.1 Mediation Analysis

Table 8 Mediation Analysis

B T P Confidence interval 95%

LL UL

Employee Autonomy -> 2

Employee Engagement -> .500
0.154 0.013 0.039 0.1000
Innovative work behavior
 Specific indirect effects results are shown in above table as the T- value is 2.500 and p-
value is 0.013 less than threshold value of 0.05. This describes that mediation of proposed
relationship is significant. It means that employee autonomy has significant impact on employee
engagement and employee engagement has significant impact on innovative work behavior. So,
H2 is accepted.

4.7.2 Moderation Analysis

Table 9 Moderation Analysis

Beta Value T- Value P- Value

Moderating Effect 1 -> Employee Engagement 0.109 3.691 0.000

Table shows the results for moderating effect of the proposed relationship. Moderating
effect (0.109) is the interaction term found after multiplying independent variable and moderator.
As the T= 3.691 for moderating effect and P= 0.000. It describes that moderation of proposed
relationships is significant. It means that there is a significant moderating impact of emotional
intelligence between employee autonomy and employee engagement. So, H3 is accepted.
 5

4.5

3.5
Low Emotional Intel-
3 liegnce

2.5

1.5

1
Low Employee Au- High Employee Au-
tonomy tonomy

Figure 2 Moderation Graph

Simple graph for moderator was plotted to follow more evidence. It shows that there is
moderating role of emotional intelligence which is affecting the relationship between employee
autonomy and employee engagement positively. Hence, the impact of EA on EE will strengthen
in the presence of emotional intelligence.

4.8. Summary of Hypotheses

Table 10 Summary of hypotheses

No. Hypotheses statement Results

H1 Employee autonomy is positively related to Innovative Work Behavior. Accepted

H2 Employee engagement plays a mediating role between employee autonomy Accepted

and Innovative Work Behavior.

H3 Emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between employee Accepted

 autonomy and employee engagement in a way that relationship is stronger
when employee shows high emotional intelligence.

CHAPTER 05

5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

5.1. Discussion

Although there is a wide range literature available that highlights the organizational
ethics but, the concept of employee autonomy is scarce especially in Pakistan’ concept. The
concept of making employees autonomous at workplace is becoming a center of attention for
researchers (like; Mehmet in (2021), studied the sources of autonomy at workplace etc.) So,
based on the concept of SDT, the purpose of this study was to reconnoiter the benefits attached
to employee autonomy at workplace. This study is among few studies that has explored the
impact of employee on innovative work behavior in Pakistan’s context especially in the presence
of mediator i.e., employee engagement and emotional intelligence as moderator.
 The results obtained after data analysis resulted in the acceptance of all the proposed
hypotheses. The results obtained are in accordance to the previous literature. Deci et al., in
(1989) referred employee autonomy as a state where an employee feels himself free from the
external controls which motivates him perform well by scheduling their work. And it is
considered as an important aspect for innovative work behavior at workplace (Theurer et al.,
2018). IWB is defined as the generation and implementation of new ideas that are related to the
current job as well as the performance of the organization (Momeni, Ebrahimpour, and Ajirloo,
2014). At workplace when and individual perceives him/her being empowered, will feel that his/
her personal skills and abilities match to the working systems, this will encourage him/her and
he/she will invest its mental abilities in finding new opportunities having positive outcomes for
him/her as well as for organization (Zhou and Wu, 2018).

To summarize the findings of this study for hypothesis 1, the result obtained has shown a
positive impact of employee autonomy on innovative work behavior among the employees of IT
sector (i.e., p=0.000). This indicates employees with high autonomy are more likely to become
innovative than the employees without autonomy. Hence, marks the approval of H1: Employee
autonomy is positively related to Innovative Work Behavior

Employee engagement is playing a role of mediator in this study and its effect are studied
between the employee autonomy and innovative work behavior. The previous research has
shown that that employee will retain in any workplace and will restate the positive benefits
attached with engagement in tasks, if they perceive benefits in terms of autonomy they will be
highly engaged in their tasks (Raza et al., 2017). When employees are given autonomy regarding
their work, they get motivated and thus reflect high level of engagement, which in return results
in innovative work behavior. Employee engagement is a constructive approach towards
organizational success that leads to gain competitive edge (Marriam and Ramli, 2019). As
employees who enjoy freedom in decision making, they take the responsibility of the work and
thus their engagement in work increases and in return their performance outcome as well ( Johari
et al., 2018).

Results of analysis of mediation hypothesis, has shown the existence of mediation

between the variables i.e., B=0.154 and p=0. 013. Thus, leading to acceptance of hypothesis 2.
This means that job autonomy generates the confidence among employees and they become
highly engaged in their tasks which leads to the improved innovative work behaviour at
workplace.

Emotional intelligence plays a role of moderator between employee autonomy and

employee engagement. Emotional intelligence has become an important concept as it allows
employees to understand his own as well others’ emotions at workplace (Sudibjo, 2020). at
workplace when an employee having autonomy over its work, have high emotional intelligence
and he will be less concerned about the events happening all around. Rather they he invests
his/her energy in finding out ways to enhance the work even more and he will positively
influence others as well, making them get engaged in their work (Tripathy, 2018). The results
obtained for hypothesis 3 has shown the acceptance of previous literature.

The results obtained highlights that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship i.e.,
B= 0.109 and p=0.000. Hence resulting in the acceptance of hypothesis 3: Emotional intelligence
moderates the relationship between employee autonomy and employee engagement in a way that
relationship is stronger when employee shows high emotional intelligence.

5.2 Implications of the study

5.2.1 Theoretical implications
This study has many theoretical implications. It helps in understanding employee
autonomy and how its effects the innovative work behavior via employee engagement among the
employees of IT sector of twin cities of Pakistan. Along with mediator emotional intelligence is
studied as a moderator between employee autonomy and employee engagement. Most of the
researchers studying employee autonomy are conducted in western societies, but this present
study is conducted in Pakistani culture

This work contributed to knowledge in the field of study by filling a gap in existing
literature. No previous research is found in examining the role of emotional intelligence as a
moderator and employee engagement as mediator. Hence this study has provided the evidence
confirming such relations which is helpful for future researchers.

Lastly, previous research conducted in Pakistan has targeted SMEs (Bashir &
Nadeem,2019) to study the impacts of employee autonomy on employee innovation (Li et al.
2021). But this study has targeted IT sector and studied the impacts of autonomy on innovative
work behavior.

5.2.2 Practical implications

The current study offers few practical implications as well. The results of the research
confirmed that autonomy is very important in creating engagement as well as the innovative
work behavior among employees. Apart from the efforts to encourage employees at workplace,
managers that want to have positive outcomes should give autonomy to their employees to
schedule the ways to complete their tasks.

Other implication suggests that by creating a simple 2-step plan can help organizations in
keeping their employees engaged and innovative. First, they need to ensure that they are the
integral part of the organization success. And secondly, employees need to trusted by their
organizations and managers. And it can be done by giving them sone autonomy in completing
their task. In simple words micro-management over employees by mangers should be avoided in
order to achieve the positive outcomes.

5.3 Research Limitations and Future Directions

5.3.1 Limitations
The current study has number of shortcomings. First, the targeted population of this study
was the employees working in IT sector only, so the results obtained are not applicable to any
other sector. Second, to collect data survey questionnaires are used. Being a common technique
of data collection, it limits the results. Other data collection techniques like discussion sessions
with employees or interviewing the employees of IT sector may help in getting even more
accurate results. Third, this study has collected data only from the employees of twin cities that
may leads to generalizability issues. Last, due to short time span this study utilized the
convenient sampling to collect that can result in biasness. So, to avoid this other sampling
techniques may be adopted in future.

5.3.2 Future Directions

It is hard to assume research findings to be final scientific observation. Rather every
study needs to be replicated with time. As every has certain gaps which calls for future research
in that area. This study has only targeted the twin cities of Pakistan to collect data. Future
researchers may target other cities along with these to find the effects of employee autonomy on
innovative work behavior. Other service sectors except IT sector may be chosen to study the
relationship. Also, in addition to current mediating and moderating variables, future researchers
are encouraged to study other variables like, trust, psychological empowerment to find the
relationship between autonomy and innovative work behavior.

5.4 Conclusion
The present study is conducted in the areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad with to find out
the relationship between employee autonomy and innovative work behavior. It fills that gap
identified in previous studies. Based on the concept SDT and previous literature, hypotheses
were developed and were tested using Smart PLS. Findings of the study has supported the
previous arguments by indicating the existence of positive relationship between employee
autonomy and innovative work behavior via employee engagement. Results have also supported
the moderating role of emotional intelligence between autonomy and engagement. Overall, this
study is a positive contribution towards the literature. But it is just a small step towards
understanding the impacts of employee autonomy and I hope it will be helpful in encouraging
further studies in this area.