Survive in adversity, preservation in prosperity: how does organization-based self-esteem affect employees’ innovation behavior in the face culture context?

Drawing on self-evaluation motive theory, we explored how employees’ organization-based self-esteem motivates them to engage in innovative behavior and the psychological mechanism behind this behavioral decision. Based on two-wave data collected from 881 employees and multiple regression analysis methods, we find that (1) organization-based self-esteem exhibits a U-shaped relationship with employees’ innovative behavior; (2) and this relationship was mediated by competence face stress; (3) while perceived insider status moderates this mediating effect. By integrating the features of the Chinese face culture into the Western management theory, this study has built and empirically examined a research model in which organization-based self-esteem has a U-shaped curve effect on employees’ innovative behavior through competence face stress under different levels of perceived insider status. Therefore, the paper promotes the development of Chinese contextual research on the formation mechanism of employees’ innovative behavior. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.