Information Quality and Empowering Leadership: A Communication Based Model of Innovation in Hierarchical Work Settings

Abstract

The study examines how leadership communication influences employees’ innovative work behaviour (IWB) within cultures characterised by high power distance. It conceptualises leader-member exchange (LMX) as the quality of dyadic information, encompassing clarity, timeliness, fairness, and responsive feedback. In addition, leaders’ humility is framed as a form of communication that validates employee voice, and a moderated mediation model is tested through psychological empowerment (PE). Data were collected via a cross-sectional survey of 366 employees from large manufacturing organisations, both governmental and private, and analysed using Smart-PLS. The study evaluated the measurement model and employed structural path analysis to test mediation through PE and moderation by leader humility, applying bootstrapping procedures. Findings reveal that hierarchical distance does not exert a direct suppressive effect on IWB. Instead, its influence is indirect, operating through PE. LMX, when considered as information quality, positively influences both PE and IWB, with PE emerging as the strongest determinant of IWB. Furthermore, leader humility significantly strengthens the link between PE and IWB, demonstrating that humble communication (such as acknowledging limitations, attributing credit to others, inviting alternative viewpoints, and providing clear explanations of decisions) transforms empowerment into innovative outcomes. The study acknowledges limitations, including its cross-sectional design within a single-country context, which constrains causal and cross-cultural generalisability. Future research is encouraged to employ longitudinal and multi-source approaches, such as supervisor-rated measures of IWB, and to investigate additional boundary conditions, including digital leadership and team climate. From a managerial perspective, sustaining innovation in hierarchical settings can be facilitated by enhancing LMX communication practices (for example, through clear goal setting, timely updates, and explanatory feedback), adopting humble leader communication to normalise upward voice, and designing empowerment-focused human resource strategies that reinforce meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. Overall, the study integrates structural aspects (hierarchical distance), relational-communication (LMX), and behavioural communication (humility) into a unified moderated mediation model. It positions information quality and humble communication as practical mechanisms through which empowerment can be converted into IWB within power-sensitive organisational contexts.