The mediating role of basic psychological needs in the influence of transformational leadership on innovative work behavior (Study case: University of Isfahan)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of basic psychological needs in the influence of transformational leadership on innovative work behavior.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation in terms of nature. The statistical population includes employees of Isfahan University. The sample size was determined based on Morgan's table of 291 people and sampling was done using the available method. To collect data from the basic psychological needs questionnaires of Guardia, Desi and Ryan (2000) with 21 items, transformational leadership by Bass and Alio (1997) with 20 items and innovative work behavior by Dejang and Denhartog (2010). It was used with 10 items. SPSS and SMART PLS3 software were used for data analysis and statistical analysis.

The results of the structural equation model showed that transformational leadership has a significant effect on basic psychological needs. Also, transformational leadership has a significant effect on innovative work behavior. The results showed that basic psychological needs play a mediating role in the influence of transformational leadership on innovative work behavior, also the effect of basic psychological needs on innovative work behavior was confirmed.

It is suggested to the university managers to strengthen the innovative work behaviors in the university by using the existing rich capacity, i.e. expert professors and researchers, by setting up centers and innovation centers for the employees to strengthen the innovative work behaviors.