Workplace friendship, psychological safety and innovative behavior in China: A moderated-mediation model

PurposeThis paper aims to clarify the influences of workplace friendship, psychological safety on employees’ innovative behavior and the moderated role of transformational leadership and face.Design/methodology/approachThe current research proposes and tests a theoretic framework to explore the mechanism of workplace friendship in influencing employees’ innovative behavior. Based on a sample of 441 respondents from various Chinese companies, this paper used SPSS 22.0 and Amos 22.0 to examine the hypotheses.FindingsResults indicate that workplace friendship positively related to innovative behavior and psychological safety functioned as a mediator between them. Moreover, it examines the moderating roles of transformational leadership and face. Transformational leadership and desire to gain face strengthen the relationship between psychological safety and employees’ innovative behavior but fear of losing face is negatively related to the strength of this relationship.Originality/valueThe current research is meaningful for managerial practice. Then, the theoretical framework will contribute to providing a new perspective for understanding complex friendship at studies thus explore its boundary conditions, which help to lead to desirable outcomes. Besides, the findings advance nascent theory on face under oriental culture background.