Organizational Support, Workplace Friendship, and Innovative Behavior among Indonesian University Faculty

Higher education as an institution is responsible for producing competent and quality human resources, and hence, must foster creative thinking skills that will ultimately lead to innovative behavior. The current trend shows that innovation in Indonesia is very low, due to the limited number of excellent researchers, research and development activities in universities and funding by government agencies. This study aimed to determine the role of psychological safety in mediating the effect of perceived organizational support and workplace friendship on innovative behavior. The population of this study were the academic faculty of a state university in Central Java, Indonesia, and a sample of 116 were selected. The results showed that perceived organizational support and workplace friendship were positively and significantly related to innovative behavior, (beta =.19, p =.02) and (beta =.47, p <.01), respectively. Perceived organizational support and workplace friendship had significant negative effects on innovative behavior, (beta = -.31, p <.01) and (beta = -.22, p =.01), respectively. Workplace friendship had a significant positive effect on innovative behavior (beta =.47, p =.00); but psychological safety did not mediate the relationship of perceived organizational support and workplace friendship with innovative behavior. This research suggests that perceived support, and workplace friendship are important factors that could be enhanced to support innovative behavior among Indonesian academic faculty.