







































Humanitas: Indonesian Psychological Journal  

Vol. 22 (2), August 2025, 127-142 

ISSN:  2598-6368(online); 1693-7236(print                                                              

       humanitas@psy.uad.ac.id        http://journal1.uad.ac.id/index.php/Humanitas            https://doi.org/10.26555/humanitas.v22i1.1344 

 

Empowering leadership and innovative work behavior in start-up 

companies: Mediating role of proactive personality  

Rifdah Hanandra, Pundani Eki Pratiwi 

Faculty of Education and Psychology, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang, Indonesia  

corresponding author: pundani@mail.unnes.ac.id 

 

 

 

ARTICLE I NFO 

 

ABST RACT 
 

 

Article history  

Received: 17 March 2025 

Revised: 4 June 2025 

Accepted: 5 July 2025 

Today, some start-ups in Indonesia have failed in their development, one 

of the reasons is that they didn’t really present innovative solutions to 

answer society’s needs. Therefore, an appropriate innovation strategy is 

needed. This study aims to determine the influence of empowering 

leadership on innovative work behavior through the mediating role of 

proactive personality. This research used a quantitative approach with a 

cross-sectional survey design. The subjects in this study were 200 start-

up employees in the Jabodetabek area with a purposive sampling 

technique, who are aged 20-40 years old, and minimum of one year of 

work experience. The research instruments used are Janssen’s 

Innovative Work Behavior Scale, Amundsen & Martinsen’s 

Empowering Leadership Scale, and Bateman & Crant’s Proactive 

Personality Scale. The analysis technique used is the Macro 

PROCESS by Hayes. The outcome demonstrates that the innovative 

work behavior of start-up employees in the Jabodetabek area is 

influenced by empowering leadership, which is also mediated by the 

employees' proactive personality. This research implies that leaders 

who apply empowering leadership provide more flexibility for 

employees, so they are likely to be more proactive, which can 

indirectly increase their innovative work behavior in carrying out 

work roles and tasks in the company. 

Keywords 

Empowering leadership, 

Innovative work behavior 

Proactive personality 

Start-up 

Innovation 

 

This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. 

 

 

 

Introduction 

Today, Indonesia's creative industry sector is known to be growing, one of which is 
characterized by the proliferation of start-ups. Start-ups are companies that refer to 
technology and information-based businesses (Ferdiansyah & Permana, 2022). Reporting 
from Katadata.co.id, data from Start-Up Ranking states that the number of start-ups in 
Indonesia as of January 2024 is 2562 start-ups (Databoks, 2024). However, despite the 
large number of start-up companies in Indonesia, some of them still fail. Some of the start-
ups in Indonesia that are known to have failed include Pegipegi, Rumah.com, Ula, 
Lummo, JD.ID, Cohive, Qlapa, Dishserve, Bananas, Fabelio, Tumbasin.id, Mobile 
Premiere League, Beres.id, UangTeman, and many more (Bisnis Tekno, 2023). 

As stated by the Minister of Communication and Information, Rudiantara, one of 

mailto:humanitas@psy.uad.ac.id
http://journal1.uad.ac.id/index.php/Humanitas
https://doi.org/10.26555/humanitas.v22i1.1344
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the causes of start-up failure is that the success rate of start-ups in Indonesia is still 
relatively low, which is only five percent (Merdeka, 2019). Furthermore, 12 main reasons 
affect start-up failure, which is insufficient funds (38%), a lack of market (35%), a decline 
in competition (20%), a lack of a business strategy (19%), policy or legal concerns (18%), 
pricing concerns (15%), an inappropriate team (14%), an untimely product or inadequate 
marketing (10%), a subpar product (8%), disputes between the team and investors (7%), a 
failed pivot (6%), and burnout (5%) (CB Insights, 2021). Not only that, the Bureau of 
Labor Statistic (BLS) report also found that around 50 percent of start- ups fail in the first 
four years of building a business, 18 percent fail due to cost issues, and 19 percent of start-
ups fail due to intense business competition reported by (Merdeka, 2019) 

The tight competition in today's increasingly competitive business world is certainly 
a challenge for start-up companies to maintain their position. Therefore, an innovation 
strategy is needed as innovation itself is the main key to the success of a start-up 
(Salamzadeh, 2015). This is because the existence of innovation can create a competitive 
advantage, produce something that cannot be done by others, do things better, and 
introduce new services that are superior, cheap, and fast to answer market demand (Aziz 
& Samad, 2016). As reported by Wartaekonomi.co.id, a digital economy observer who is 
also the CEO of PT Duta Sukses Dunia, Yudi Candra, revealed that many start-up 
companies in Indonesia have failed because they did not really present innovative solutions 
to answer the needs of society (Warta Ekonomi, 2019). Therefore, the consideration of 
start-up companies to use the right innovation model strategy is important so that 
companies can win market competition and minimize the risk of failure. 

Several previous studies and empirical evidence conclude that the ability of a 
company to deliver innovative products/services is related to innovative work behavior 
(De Jong & Den Hartog, 2008; Janssen, 2000; Scott & Bruce, 1994; Unsworth & Parker, 
2002). Innovative work behavior is characterized by a behavior that intentionally creates, 
introduces, and implements new ideas in order to provide benefits to the work group or 
organization/company (Janssen, 2000). A recent study highlighted that organizations that 
fail to innovate risk losing their competitiveness and may eventually be forced out of the 
market (Shanker et al., 2017). In contrast, organizations that continuously innovate are 
more likely to achieve higher levels of performance and long-term success (Ogbonnaya & 
Valizade, 2018). 

Employees who demonstrate innovative work behavior are more capable of quickly 
and accurately recognizing new work conditions, as well as proposing original ideas to 
improve the quality of services or products offered (Afsar et al., 2018). This is why 
innovative work behavior is also a critical factor for organizations in achieving 
competitive advantage, delivering optimal performance outcomes, and ensuring long-
term sustainability in order to succeed in a competitive environment (Amalia & 
Wulansari, 2017; Dayanti & Yulianti, 2023; Yulita et al., 2022). Therefore, innovative 
work behavior is a necessary and vital behavioral attribute for employees, particularly in 
start-up companies that face numerous demands and are in the process of growth amid 
today’s competitive technological business landscape (Dayanti & Yulianti, 2023; Puspita 
et al., 2022; Savitry et al., 2021). 

Innovative work behavior is generally impacted by two factors, which are individual 
factors and organizational factors (Li & Zheng, 2014). On the organizational factor, 
leadership is believed to hold an important role in employee innovative work behavior 
because a leader is capable of shaping attitudes and creating conditions that foster the 
emergence of employees' innovative work behavior (Javed et al., 2019; J. Wu & Lin, 
2018). Previous studies have explored the influence of various leadership styles, such as 
transformational, authentical, and ethical leadership, on innovative work behavior 
(Ashfaq et al., 2021; Yamak & Eyupoglu, 2021; Yeap, 2023). However, what sets 
empowering leadership apart is it has a focus on fostering independence and self-direction 
in employees, which is why empowering leadership is considered one of the most 



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promising leadership approaches, as its core elements are known to actively encourage and 
promote innovative work behavior (Biemann et al., 2015; Cheong et al., 2016). 
Empowering leadership is characterized as a leadership approach where a leader shares 
authority with their team members and offers growth and motivational assistance to boost 
their self-esteem, drive, and capacity for independence at work (Amundsen & Martinsen, 
2014). A leader who implements empowering leadership will delegate more authority to 
their employees, encourage them to be responsible for their work, encourage them to make 
decisions independently on the autonomy given, and be willing to guide, share information, 
and ask for input from their employees (Sharma & Kirkman, 2015). Empowering 
leadership has also been shown in several studies to be a predictor of innovative work 
behavior. Empowering leadership has been shown to influence innovative work behavior in 
various sectors, ranging from the education sector, service sector, pharmaceutical industry 
sector, small and medium enterprise sector, to start-up company sector (Gkorezis, 2016; 
Hassi et al., 2022; Rao et al., 2019; Wihuda et al., 2017; Yusuf & Etikariena, 2023). 

Furthermore, it is believed that innovative work behavior itself is a complex 
phenomenon, which depends on individual psychological characteristics and 
contextual/organizational attributes (Riaz et al., 2021; Scott & Bruce, 1994). Therefore, 
quite a lot of research in this leadership field combines contextual attributes and individual 
psychological attributes, both in the form of moderator or mediator variables, in predicting 
innovative work behavior (Gkorezis, 2016; Hassi et al., 2022; Wihuda et al., 2017). Since 
individuals possess distinct personality traits, these differences significantly influence 
organizational performance (Sagha et al., 2017). To effectively operate in a dynamic and 
uncertain environment, organizations need to cultivate proactive behavior among 
employees, as this can significantly enhance their ability to remain competitive (Fuller & 
Marler, 2009). Proactive personality is a consistent propensity for proactive conduct 
(Bateman & Crant, 1993). In other words, a proactive personality describes an individual's 
propensity to display proactive behavior. Proactive personality is an individual's attitude 
that is profit-oriented, has initiative, dares to do something diligently, and is responsible 
for everything that is done to make changes to their environment (Seibert et al., 1999) 

Additionally, prior studies have shown that proactive personalities influence 
innovative work behavior (Li et al., 2017; Windiarsih & Etikariena, 2017). A proactive 
personality has a positive impact on innovative work behavior in teachers. According to 
these findings, teachers who possess a proactive personality are more likely to exhibit 
innovative work behavior (Li et al., 2017). There is also a significant relationship between 
proactive personality and innovative work behavior in BUMN X (Windiarsih & 
Etikariena, 2017). This study explains that the innovative work behavior displayed by 
24% employees comes from the employees' initiative to take advantage of existing 
opportunities, to make changes to their work environment to be more effective, which will 
then bring benefits to themselves or to the company. 

In addition, other literature has also found a positive impact of empowering 
leadership on proactive behavior in a company (Singh & Rangnekar, 2020; Wang & Yang, 
2021). A leader who applies this empowering leadership style can increase employees' 
intrinsic motivation by sharing power with their employees and supplying support to them, 
where this intrinsic motivation will in turn encourage employees' proactive behavior 
because it can increase role orientation, broad self-efficacy, core task ability, and proactive 
goal-attempt behavior (Singh & Rangnekar, 2020). Thus, the benefits of a proactive 
personality are also relevant in the high-tech corporate sector, such as start-up companies, 
due to rapid changes in technology and market preferences that require companies to be 
responsive and active to face challenges (Torres et al., 2017). Furthermore, several 
previous studies have demonstrated that proactive personalities can mediate the effects of 
specific leadership philosophies on innovative work behavior (Ashfaq et al., 2021; Yamak 
& Eyupoglu, 2021; Yeap, 2023). As said from trait activation theory (Tett & Burnett, 2003), 
personality traits such as proactivity are most likely to manifest when individuals are placed 
in environments that invite, support, and reward such behaviors. A leader has the ability 



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to create a supportive work environment where employees feel empowered and are 
encouraged to act independently, which in turn motivates them to put in greater effort and 
take on more responsibility in their roles (Avolio et al., 2004). As a result, leadership 
support boosts employees’ proactive drive and encourages them to engage in proactive 
behaviors within the workplace (Wu & Parker, 2017) 

Empowering leadership could create the psychological and structural conditions 
necessary for proactive personality to flourish by delegating authority, encouraging 
autonomous decision-making, and fostering participation in problem-solving, which this 
form of behavior could activate proactive tendencies (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014; 
Sharma & Kirkman, 2015). Through this activation, employees with proactive 
personalities are more likely to engage in innovative work behavior (Mubarak et al., 2021). 
Moreover, when empowered, such individuals are more likely to identify opportunities for 
improvement and take bold actions that can transform products, services, and processes, 
which is a hallmark of proactivity and innovation (Li et al., 2017; Yadav et al., 2023). 
Therefore, along with the massive and intense start-up competition today, this research is 
considered important and interesting to conduct with the hope that the research results that 
will be obtained can provide benefits for start-up companies to remain able to survive and 
compete with competitors through increasing employee innovative work behavior. 

 

Method 

Research Design 

This research used a quantitative approach whose analysis focuses on numerical 
data/numbers, which will be processed by statistical methods (Azwar, 2021). The research 
design used in this research is a cross-sectional survey type of explanatory research. This 
research is conducted only once within a specific period and uses research instruments to 
collect numerical data, which is then analyzed using statistical methods before the results 
are reported and compared with previous studies to determine whether they support 
existing findings or provide discoveries (Budiastuti & Bandur, 2018). Meanwhile, it is 
referred to as explanatory research because this study focuses on the causal relationships 
between the variables being investigated through testing previously proposed hypotheses 
(Hartono, 2018). 

Participants 

The participants in this study were start-up employees in the Jabodetabek area (i.e., 
the greater Jakarta area in Indonesia, encompassing Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, 
and Bekasi), totalling 200 people, obtained through the purposive sampling technique 
based on these criteria: 

1. Start-up employees in the Jabodetabek area 

2. Aged 20-40 years old 

3. Employees who work in a start-up that has been operating for at least one year 

4. Employees who have had one year (minimum) of work experience in the company  
 
Among these criteria, the specific consideration for the researcher is startup 

employees who work in the Jabodetabek area, as the context of this research focuses on 
startup companies, and this region was selected because, according to data from the 
Indonesian Creative Industry Society for Information and Communication Technology 
(MIKTI) in 2021, the majority of startup companies are concentrated in this geographical 
area, representing 39.59% of all startups (Databoks, 2022). Data collection was conducted 
through various online platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. 
The demographic data of participants are shown in Table 1. The demographic data shows 
that the majority of respondents are female, and the education level is dominated by a 



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bachelor's level. Then, this study’s respondents were mostly in the age range of 20-25 years, 
and the majority of respondents' job levels were in staff/assistant positions. In addition, 
out of a total of 200 respondents who work in start-ups in the Jabodetabek area, the majority 
of respondents have work experience in the range of 1-3 years, with the most work 
locations dominated in the Jakarta area. As for the field of business itself, the majority of 
respondents work in start-ups in the field of e-Commerce and education. Also, most of 
the respondents in this study work in start-ups classified as Ponies, Cockroaches, and 
Centaurs. 

 
Table 1 

Demographic Data of Participants 

 Category Frequency Percentage 

Gender Male 68 34% 

 Female 132 66% 

Age 20-25 years old 112 56% 

 26-30 years old 70 35% 

 31-35 years old 14 7% 

 36-40 years old 4 2% 

Education Level Senior High School 46 23% 

 Diploma 5 2.5% 

 Bachelor 140 70% 

 Master 9 4.5% 

Position Manager 17 8.5% 

 Supervisor/Coordinator 22 11% 

 Specialist/Analyst 40 20% 

 Staff/Assistant 121 60.5% 

Work Experience 1-3 years 139 69.5% 

 4-6 years 47 23.5% 

 7-9 years 10 5% 

 10-12 years 2 1% 

 >12 years 2 1% 

Work Locations Jakarta 154 77% 

 Bogor 5 2.5% 

 Depok 5 2.5% 

 Tangerang 24 12% 

 Bekasi 12 6% 

Business Food & Beverage 19 9.5% 

 e-Commerce 44 22% 

 Finance 19 9.5% 

 Health 14 7% 

 Education 40 20% 

 Travel & Accommodation 11 5.5% 

 Agriculture & Livestock 9 4.5% 

 Property 6 3% 

 Logistics 11 5.5% 

 Transportation 4 2% 

 Others 23 11.5% 

Classification Cockroach 50 25% 

 Ponies 52 26% 

 Centaurs 48 24% 

 Unicorn 37 18.5% 

 Decacorn 11 5.5% 

 Hectocorn 2 1% 

 



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Instruments 

The Innovative Work Behavior Scale is the tool utilized in this study to measure innovative 

work behavior (Janssen, 2000). This tool measures idea generation (e.g., “Generating new 

ideas for difficult issues”), idea promotion (e.g., “Acquiring approval for innovative 

ideas”), and idea implementation (e.g., “Transforming innovative ideas into useful 

applications”). It is divided into 3 dimensions and 9 items. The level of innovative work 

behavior of one individual is considered high when the obtained total scale score is high, 

and low when the obtained total scale score is low. 

The Empowering Leadership Scale is the tool utilized in this study to assess 

empowering leadership (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014). This instrument comprises 2 

dimensions, which was broken down into 8 aspects and 18 items that measure delegating 

(e.g., “My leader gives me power”), initiative (e.g., “My leader encourages me to take 

initiative”), goal-focus (e.g., “My leader is concerned that I reach my goals”), efficacy 

support (e.g., “My leader listens to me”), inspiring (e.g., “My leader conveys a bright view 

of the future”), coordinating (e.g., “My leader discusses shared affairs with me”), 

modelling (e.g., “My leader lets me see how he/she organizes his/her work”), and guidance 

(e.g., “My leader shows me how I can improve my way of working”). The level of the 

leader’s empowering leadership is considered high when the obtained total scale score is 

high, and low when the obtained total scale score is low. 
The Proactive Personality Scale is the tool utilized in this study to gauge proactive 

personality (Bateman & Crant, 1993). This unidimensional tool consists of four indicators, 
each of which is divided into sixteen items that assess the individuals' ability to scan for 
opportunities (e.g., "I excel at identifying opportunities"), demonstrate initiative (e.g., "If 
I see something I don't like, I fix it"), take action (e.g., "I love to challenge the status quo"), 
and persevere until they achieve closure by enacting change (e.g., "When I have a problem, 
I tackle it head-on”). The level of an individual’s proactive personality is considered high 
when the obtained total scale score is high, and low when the obtained total scale score is 
low. 

All three scales have been translated into Indonesian by a Sworn Translator and 
have been tested for content validity through expert judgement by an industrial and 
organizational psychology practitioner. Content validity refers to the extent to which the 
items in an instrument accurately represent the entire area or content domain that the 
instrument is intended to measure (Purwanto, 2016). Establishing content validity requires 
a critical and careful examination to determine whether the content and objectives 
measured by the instrument truly represent the defined domain.  

 

Table 2 

Item Discrimination Index 

 

Scale Item Discrimination 
 Index 
Innovative Work Behavior Scale 0.58 – 0.82 

Empowering Leadership Scale 0.47 – 0.80 

Proactive Personality Scale 0.50 – 0.79 

 

This evaluation is usually carried out by experts in the field, through a process known 

as expert judgement, to decide whether the instrument can be considered valid. After 

expert judgement, several items underwent minor revisions, such as sentence 

simplification and changes in word choices. The three scales also went through the item 

discrimination index test with the Corrected Item-Total Correlation approach, for which 



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the limit of criteria for the item selection is r ≥ 0.3 (Azwar, 2021). Furthermore, the 

researcher also used the Cronbach Alpha technique in SPSS 21 for Windows for assessing 

the reliability of each instrument. When an instrument has a Cronbach’s Alpha (α) value 

of ≥ 0.70, this instrument is considered reliable (Siyoto & Sodik, 2015).  

Table 2 shows that the Innovative Work Behavior Scale has discriminant power 

ranging from 0.58 to 0.82, making it suitable for use. Furthermore, in testing the item's 

discriminant power of the Empowering Leadership Scale, it is known that the discriminant 

power ranges from 0.47 to 0.80, making it also suitable for use. Finally, the proactive 

personality scale has discriminant power ranging from 0.50 to 0.79, indicating it is also 

suitable for use. Thus, the 3 scales are considered able to be used. 

Table 3 

Cronbach’s Alpha 

 
Scale Cronbach’s α 

Innovative Work Behavior Scale 0.91 

Empowering Leadership Scale 0.95 

Proactive Personality Scale 0.94 

Table 3 shows that the reliability analysis using Cronbach's alpha demonstrates that 

all 3 scales exhibit excellent internal consistency. The Innovative Work Behavior Scale 

achieved a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.91, the Empowering Leadership Scale 
demonstrated the highest reliability with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.95, and the Proactive 

Personality Scale showed excellent reliability with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.94. All 3 

instruments are highly reliable for measuring their respective constructs and are suitable for 

research purposes. 

Data Analysis 

To test the hypothesis, this study used an analysis technique, which is t h e  Macro 

PROCESS  bootstrapping technique  (Hayes,  2012). Macro PROCESS allows researchers 

to see if there is an interaction effect and its effect on just one process. The effect between 

variables can be declared significant if the p-value > 0.05. Meanwhile, the effect of mediation 

is declared significant if the range between BootLLCI and BootULCI is not equal to 0 (zero). 

 

Results 

Table 4 provides the regression coefficient (α), significance levels (p-values), and the lower 

and upper CI (confidence interval) for each predictor. Empowering leadership was an 

important predictor of proactive personality (α = 0.40, p < 0.05). Proactive personality was 
also a significant predictor of innovative work behavior (α = 0.32, p < 0.05). And 

empowering leadership was also a significant predictor of innovative work behavior (α = 

0.09, p < 0.05). Moreover, it was found that empowering leadership also has an indirect effect 

on innovative work behavior through the mediation of proactive personality (α = 0.12, ULCI 

0.07; LLCI 0.19). The results show that the coefficient of the indirect effect between 

empowering leadership and innovative work behavior is 0.12, with a confidence interval 
ranging from 0.07 for BootLLCI (lower level for CI) to 0.19 for BootULCI (upper level for 

CI). Based on these results, since the confidence interval between BootLLCI and BootULCI 

does not include zero, the indirect effect is statistically significant, which means that 

empowering leadership has an indirect effect on innovative work behavior through the 

mediation of proactive personality. Figure 1 shows the mediation effect of proactive 

personality on the relationship between empowering leadership and innovative work 



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path (b) 

β(b)=0.32 

p<0.001 

Proactive 

Personality 

Empowering 

Leadership 

Innovative Work 

Behavior 

 

path (a) 

β(a)=0.40 

p<0.001 

behavior.  

Table 4 

Results of Bootstrapping Techniques Macro PROCESS 

 
Path Variable β t  95% CI  p 

    Lower upper  

a’ Empowering Leadership → Proactive 

Personality 

0.40 7.82 0.30 0.50 0.00 

b’ Proactive Personality → Innovative 

Work Behavior 

0.32 8.93 0.25 0.39 0.00 

c’ Empowering Leadership → Innovative 

Work Behavior 

0.09 3.34 0.04 0.15 0.00 

a*b Empowering Leadership → Proactive 

Personality → Innovative Work 
Behavior 

(indirect effect) 

0.12 - 0.07 0.19 - 

 

 

Figure 1 

Results of Bootstrapping Techniques Macro PROCESS 
 

 

 

 

 

path (a*b) 

β(a*b)=0.12 

 

 

 

path (c)  

β(c)=0.22 p<0.001 

path (c’) 

β(c’)=0.09 p<0.001 

Notes: 

––––   Direct effect 

- ------- Indirect effect 
Path a: Direct effect of empowering leadership on proactive personality  
Path b: Direct effect of proactive personality on innovative work behavior  
Path c: Total effect of empowering leadership on innovative work behavior  
Path c’: Direct effect of empowering leadership on innovative work behavior 
Path a*b: Indirect effect of empowering leadership on innovative work behavior through the 
mediation of proactive personality 
 

Table 5 shows that 23.64% of proactive personality was explained by empowering 
leadership, 44.39% of innovative work behavior was described by empowering leadership 
and proactive personality together, and 21.84% of innovative work behavior was explained 
by empowering leadership. This means that empowering leadership contributes to 
proactive personality by 23.64%, while the remaining 76.36% is influenced by other 
variables. Furthermore, the combined influence of empowering leadership and proactive 
personality on innovative work behavior is approximately 44.39%, with the remaining 
55.61% being attributed to other factors or variables. Specifically, empowering leadership 
alone can predict the emergence of innovative work behavior by 21.84%, whereas the 



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remaining 78.16% is predicted by other variables. 
 

Table 5 

Coefficient of Determination 

 

Variables R R-Sq p 

Empowering Leadership → Proactive Personality 0.48 0.23 0.00 

Empowering Leadership & Proactive 
Personality → Innovative Work 
Behavior 

 

0.66 

 

0.44 

 

0.00 

Empowering Leadership → Innovative Work Behavior 0.46 0.21 0.00 

 

Discussion 
The study's findings indicate that innovative work behavior among start-up employees in 
the Jabodetabek region is positively impacted by empowered leadership. The main 
characteristics of empowering leadership lie in the provision of autonomy support and 
development support by leaders to their employees (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014). 
Autonomy support is reflected in how leaders influence employees’ motivation at work—
for instance, by delegating tasks to allow employees to make independent decisions 
related to their responsibilities, coordinating with employees to enhance goal-oriented 
effectiveness, encouraging them to use their initiative, demonstrating interest, trust, and 
confidence in their ability to complete tasks, and fostering an inspiring work atmosphere 
through inspirational communication. Meanwhile, development support is evident in how 
leaders guide and provide training for employees to help them improve their skills and 
competencies. 

Through the supports provided in empowering leadership, employees are not 
constrained by a rigid leadership style, allowing them greater freedom to explore in the 
workplace, exhibit creative behavior, feel more confident and motivated to innovate, and 
perform their tasks more innovatively, ultimately enhancing work quality (Chow, 2018; 
Dehghani et al., 2014; Gkorezis, 2016; Özarallı, 2015). Employees who feel involved in 
decision-making processes also tend to find greater meaning in their work, which in turn 
motivates them to develop innovative solutions to problems (Choi et al., 2016). This aligns 
with the characteristics of start-up companies, which are typically highly innovation-
driven in order to remain competitive and grow rapidly. So, it is important for a start-up 
to have employees who have highly innovative work behavior so that the company can 
gain more benefit from every opportunity that exists and can afford to produce new 
products, processes, or services that can answer market needs. 

The results of this study support the prior findings that innovative work behavior is 
significantly positively impacted by empowering leadership (Yadav et al., 2023). It is 
known that through empowering leadership, employees get the opportunity for the 
autonomy given to work independently, so as to create a suitable work environment to 
find the innovative solutions needed. The findings of this study are further supported by 

another study, which found that innovative work behavior among employees is directly 
impacted by empowering leadership (Riaz et al., 2021). In this case, leaders who give 
their employee’s opportunity to work independently, those employees will be better able 
to take initiative, carry responsibility, and manage work tasks to achieve organizational 
goals, all of which are included in the characteristics of innovative work behavior. 

This study’s results also reveal that empowering leadership has a positive influence 
on proactive personality in start-up employees in the Jabodetabek area. A person's innate 
personality or character also influences how easily they are influenced by other forces, 
one of the outside variables that may have an impact in this situation is the leadership 



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style that leaders employ (Hofmann & Jones, 2005). Personality traits such as proactivity 
are most likely to manifest when individuals are placed in environments that invite, 
support, and reward such behaviors (Tett & Burnett, 2003), which in this context is in a 
workplace that implements empowering leadership. Many leader behaviors that are part 
of empowering leadership, such as encouraging employees to participate in decision-
making and giving autonomy from bureaucratic restrictions, indicate to employees that 
their leaders trust them and give them opportunities for personal growth and development 
(Lee et al., 2018). These conditions also provide a sense of impact, autonomy, 
competency, and meaningfulness for employees, which can encourage them to use their 
potential to the fullest by taking initiatives and creating positive alterations in their work 
roles (Kim & Beehr, 2016; Wong & Giessner, 2018). 

The desire to create positive alteration in work is closely related to the characteristics 
of a proactive personality, which is associated with a person's active efforts to influence 
change in their environment to be more effective (Delle & Amadu, 2016). The existence 
of this proactive personality leads employees to always look for solutions when they are 
experiencing a challenge (Wang et al., 2017). This is because proactive employees equip 
themselves with good coping behavior in handling certain situations (Mubarak et al., 
2021). Thus, the application of empowering leadership in the workplace can contribute to 
increasing employees' proactive personality through the empowerment support provided. 
The results of this study are consistent with a prior study, which showed that employee 
proactivity is positively impacted by empowering leadership (Singh et al., 2023). This is 
because employees feel they have power over the work autonomy given by their leaders, 
who apply an empowering leadership style so that they tend to engage in proactive 
behavior. In addition, this study also supports another findings that empowering leadership 
has a direct effect on employee proactive work behavior (Wang & Yang, 2021). 

Additionally, this study showed that innovative work behavior among start-up 
employees in the Jabodetabek area was positively impacted by proactive personality. 
Based on the organizational perspective, the existence of this proactive personality give an 
essential role in increasing the creativity and novelty of employee thinking in offering 
useful new ideas because employees who have proactive personality are good at seeing 
opportunities, being able to take initiative, taking risks, and being persistent, so they are 
less concerned about their work, more receptive to innovation, resilient to stress, and have 
positive views of their efficacy (Han et al., 2014; Pan et al., 2021). Employees with 
proactive personalities are known as risk-takers who are highly committed and creative 
(Mubarak et al., 2021). They consider complex situations as personal challenges, in 
solving them, this behavior also leads to their innovative work behavior in the workplace. 
The company itself also needs innovation to remain able to contend with its competitors 
(Ullah et al., 2023). This research also proves that a proactive personality can be a predictor 
of the emergence of innovative work behavior in the workplace. 

Furthermore, earlier research has shown that proactive personalities have a 
considerable favorable impact on employees' innovative work behavior, which supports 
these findings (Ullah et al., 2023). According to the findings, the primary personality trait 
that encourages employees to engage in innovative work behavior is a proactive 
personality. In addition, these findings are also in line with prior research that proactive 
personality has a direct positive effect on employee innovative work behavior (Mubarak 
et al., 2021). These findings show how the work environment affects the emergence of 
innovation, so they recommend that companies prepare an environment that can ignite 
employees' proactive personality, which will then help foster their innovative work 
behavior. 

Moreover, a proactive personality has been shown to mediate the relationship 
between empowering leadership and innovative work behavior among start-up employees 
in the Jabodetabek area. These results showed that empowering leadership can indirectly 
boost innovative work behavior through proactive personality, in addition to having a 



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Rifdah Hanandra et.al (Empowering leadership and innovative work behavior in start-up companies:… ) 

direct impact on it. This is because the employees get adequate freedom from their leaders 
who apply empowering leadership, so they show more desire to complete work tasks 
based on their exploration and initiative (Gkorezis, 2016). This is consistent with the 
empowerment theory, which holds that psychological empowerment that cultivates a sense 
of impact, autonomy, competency, and meaningfulness can boost employees' intrinsic 
motivation to take initiative and make positive changes in their work roles in order to fully 
utilize their potential (Kim & Beehr, 2016; Wong & Giessner, 2018). On the other side, 
based on trait activation theory (Tett & Burnett, 2003), personality traits such as 
proactivity are most likely to manifest when individuals are placed in environments that 
invite, support, and reward such behaviors. In other words, when employees are placed in 
an environment that gives them a sense of autonomy and feels empowered, it can boost 
them to be more proactive in continuously innovating. 

Employees with a proactive personality are able to be active in their work roles, 
identify opportunities, show personal initiative, and persist in their desire to make 
constructive changes in the work environment (Crant, 1995). Then, these proactive actions 
encourage employees to explore, create, and implement new ideas (Javed et al., 2019). 
Additionally, this encourages the innovative spirit of employees, which shows up in the 
form of creative work practices. Therefore, when leaders adopt empowering leadership, 
employees feel empowered by the support they receive, which is why proactive 
personalities can operate as a mediator in the relationship between empowering leadership 
and innovative work behavior. Then, it increases their intrinsic motivation to carry out a 
series of proactive actions such as seeking new opportunities, showing initiative, taking 
risks, and making persistent efforts to change and make their work environment as optimal 
as possible. Employees with proactive personalities are therefore less worried about their 
work, more receptive to innovation, resilient to stress, and have positive views of their 
abilities. This ultimately results in an increase in their innovative work behavior at work. 
Thus, the flexibility provided by leaders through empowering leadership is able to make 
employees more proactive, which can indirectly simultaneously increase their innovative 
work behavior in carrying out work roles and tasks in the workplace. 

This finding is in line with the prior research, which examines some specific 
leadership philosophies on innovative work behavior with mediation of proactive 
personality, including transformational leadership (Ashfaq et al., 2021), ethical leadership 
(Yeap, 2023), and authentic leadership (Yamak & Eyupoglu, 2021). This finding is in line 
with the three prior studies that provide results that proactive personality is able to provide 
a mediating role in the influence of certain leadership styles on innovative work behavior. 
Thus, it can be concluded that other leadership styles besides authentic leadership, 
transformational leadership, or ethical leadership can influence employees' innovative 
work behavior through the mediation of proactive personality, namely the empowering 
leadership style. 

While prior studies have explored transformational, authentical, and ethical 
leadership as antecedents of innovative work behavior through proactive personality 
(Ashfaq et al., 2021; Yamak & Eyupoglu, 2021; Yeap, 2023). This study uniquely 
positions empowering leadership within that framework. It adds to the academic 
discourse by identifying a previously underexplored mediating role of proactive 
personality in the empowering leadership and innovation linkage. It means that these 
findings provide new theoretical contributions related to the topic of the influence of 
empowering leadership on innovative work behavior through the mediating role of 
proactive personality. 

Practically, the study’s findings can be a guide for leaders to foster and enhance 
employees’ innovative work behavior in the workplace. In the competitive and fast-paced 
world of start-ups, placing or training leaders with an empowering leadership style can be 
a strategic decision. These leaders catalyze both proactivity and innovation, enhancing 
organizational agility and performance (Mubarak et al., 2021; Wang & Yang, 2021). 



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Rifdah Hanandra et.al (Empowering leadership and innovative work behavior in start-up companies:… ) 

Leaders also could foster a work culture that values autonomy, competence, and 
empowerment, because when employees feel empowered and psychologically safe, they 
are more likely to proactively generate novel ideas and persist in implementing them 
(Crant, 2000; Kim & Beehr, 2016). 

The scale used in this study is not adapted, but the result of translation from the 
original scale, so it does not yet have construct validity. Future researchers who are 
interested in raising similar research topics can further consider adapting the measuring 
instrument first, the Innovative Work Behavior Scale, the Empowering Leadership Scale, 
or the Proactive Personality Scale, so that it could be more accurate and representative in 
producing research data and can be used regularly for future researchers. In addition, the 
context of the start-up sample in this study is limited to the Jabodetabek area, and the 
findings may not be fully generalizable to start-ups in other regions outside the 
Jabodetabek area. Therefore, future research is encouraged to consider a broader 
geographical scope in order to obtain results that are more representative and 
comprehensive. 

Conclusion 

According to this study, a proactive personality acts as a mediator between empowering 
leadership and innovative work behavior. This study implicated that leaders who apply 
empowering leadership provide more flexibility for employees, so they are likely to be 
more proactive, which can indirectly increase their innovative work behavior in carrying 
out work roles and tasks in the company. 

Acknowledgment. 

The author would like to express gratitude to all parties involved in this research, especially 
to the participants who were willing to contribute and also to the institutions and experts within 
them who have provided support for this research. 

 

Declarations 
Author contribution. 

The first author is responsible for conducting research and writing manuscripts for scientific papers. 
The second author is responsible for guiding research and manuscript writing, as well as funding. 

Funding statement. The second author funded this research. 
Conflict of interest. The author declares no conflict of interest. 
Additional Information. There is no additional information for this paper.   

 

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