The Effects of Challenge and Hindrance Stressors on Innovative Work Behavior among Taiwanese R&D Engineers in the High-Tech Industry: Job Autonomy as the Moderator
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Date
2025
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Nowadays, Taiwan's heavy reliance on high-tech industries for generating revenue has made research and development (R&D) professionals crucial for companies to sustain a strong competitive advantage by developing cutting-edge products and technological services under stressful conditions. To stay ahead in the fast-paced market, high-tech companies must strengthen innovation among R&D professionals, which is driven by innovative work behavior. The hypotheses in this study were tested using online survey data collected from 250 R&D engineers in Taiwan's high-tech companies through snowball and convenience sampling. By using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 was used to conduct descriptive analysis, convergent validity, discriminant validity, Pearson correlation analysis, t-tests, ANOVA, hierarchical regression, and PROCESS analysis to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that both challenge stressors and hindrance stressors are positively related to different dimensions of innovative work behavior. Furthermore, innovation rewards, remote work mode, and working hours per day were found to have a significant positive association with innovative work behavior (idea generation, idea promotion, idea realization). According to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, job autonomy can be considered a resource that buffers job demands and may also function as a moderator. However, job autonomy did not moderate the relationships between the two types of stressors and the three dimensions of innovative work behavior. These findings offer valuable insights for high-tech companies and managers in developing strategies to promote innovative work behavior, as well as in understanding the impact of workplace stressors on the three dimensions of innovative work behavior among R&D engineers.
Nowadays, Taiwan's heavy reliance on high-tech industries for generating revenue has made research and development (R&D) professionals crucial for companies to sustain a strong competitive advantage by developing cutting-edge products and technological services under stressful conditions. To stay ahead in the fast-paced market, high-tech companies must strengthen innovation among R&D professionals, which is driven by innovative work behavior. The hypotheses in this study were tested using online survey data collected from 250 R&D engineers in Taiwan's high-tech companies through snowball and convenience sampling. By using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 was used to conduct descriptive analysis, convergent validity, discriminant validity, Pearson correlation analysis, t-tests, ANOVA, hierarchical regression, and PROCESS analysis to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that both challenge stressors and hindrance stressors are positively related to different dimensions of innovative work behavior. Furthermore, innovation rewards, remote work mode, and working hours per day were found to have a significant positive association with innovative work behavior (idea generation, idea promotion, idea realization). According to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, job autonomy can be considered a resource that buffers job demands and may also function as a moderator. However, job autonomy did not moderate the relationships between the two types of stressors and the three dimensions of innovative work behavior. These findings offer valuable insights for high-tech companies and managers in developing strategies to promote innovative work behavior, as well as in understanding the impact of workplace stressors on the three dimensions of innovative work behavior among R&D engineers.
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none, innovative work behavior, challenge stressors, hindrance stressors, job autonomy, job demands-resources theory