The Impact of Shared Leadership on Proactive Innovation Behaviors with Considering Perceptions of Job Complexity and Creative Self-Efficacy

This research aim to investigate the influence of shared leadership on proactive innovation behaviors, with the moderating role of job complexity perception and the mediating role of creative self-efficacy. The study is applied and descriptive in terms of purpose. The statistical population included all faculty members of Islamic Azad University branches in West Azerbaijan province, total 847 individuals in the year 2022. A cluster sampling method based on the Cochran formula was used to select a sample of 186 participants. Data were collected using the Shared Leadership questionnaire by Hoch and Kozlowski (2014), Creative Self-Efficacy questionnaire by Tierney and Farmer (1991), job complexity perception questionnaire by Dean and Snell (1991), and Proactive Innovation Behavior questionnaire by Zhao et al. (2014). Structural Equation Modeling based on Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) was employed for data analysis and hypothesis testing. The findings indicate that shared leadership and creative self-efficacy have a significant positive effect on proactive innovation behaviors. Creative self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the impact of shared leadership on proactive innovation behaviors. Job complexity perception moderates the relationship between shared leadership and proactive innovation behaviors, but its moderating effect on the relationship between creative self-efficacy and proactive innovation behaviors is not statistically significant. Therefore, shared leadership not only enhances faculty members' creative self-efficacy but also propels team members towards proactive innovation behaviors. In this regard, the design of complex and challenging jobs increases faculty members' motivation and strengthens the effectiveness of shared leadership on innovation behaviors.