Do nurses display innovative work behavior when their values match with hospitals’ values?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw on organizational psychology, innovation and knowledge management literatures to investigate the impact of a nurse’s person-organization (P-O) fit on his/her innovative work behavior (IWB). Furthermore, in order to understand the psychological mechanisms surrounding this relationship, the authors examine the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating role of knowledge sharing behavior. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 441 nurses and 73 doctors through structured questionnaires from four public sector hospitals in Thailand. Findings Results of the study indicate that nurse’s P-O fit is positively related to both self (nurse) and doctor’s ratings of innovative behaviors and that psychological empowerment mediates this relationship. These results imply that a nurse’s perception of value congruence impacts his/her perception about feeling of empowerment, which in turn helps in engaging him/her into acts of innovativeness more often. The results also show that the relationship between P-O fit and IWB is stronger among nurses who frequently share their best practices and mistakes with co-workers. Originality/value Employee involvement in innovative work is of crucial importance for organization’s competitiveness, especially in the nursing profession. The compatibility between personal and organizational values is a vital ingredient of our personal, social and professional worlds. Although research has identified some antecedents of nurses’ IWB, it is unclear how P-O fit influence nurses’ IWB. Nurses with stronger value congruence when empowered psychologically may respond more effectively to display IWBs in current dynamic and challenging public health care work environments.