Positive implicit followership theories relate to followers' innovative behavior via future work self salience and job crafting

Employee innovative behavior is a key contributor to organizational adaptability and competitiveness, and understanding its psychological antecedents remains a central concern for both scholars and practitioners. Although implicit followership theories (IFTs)-the cognitive prototypes that individuals hold about what followers are like-have been linked to workplace outcomes, most prior work has adopted a leader-centric view and has examined IFTs in relation to innovation through relational accounts such as leader-member exchange. Adopting a follower-centric perspective and integrating possible-selves theory with the model of proactive motivation, the present study proposes that followers' own positive IFTs are indirectly associated with their innovative behavior via two self-concept-based, agentic intervening variables, future work self salience and job crafting. The model was estimated with data from a three-wave, time-lagged design with matched employee-supervisor dyads of knowledge workers in Chinese enterprises (N = 258). Positive IFTs, the two intervening variables, and supervisor-rated innovative behavior were measured at separate waves; the two intervening variables were measured concurrently. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the discriminant validity of the focal constructs; the positive IFT measure was adapted to a self-referent framing, and its construct validity was not independently established. Regression-based path analysis showed that positive IFTs were positively related to innovative behavior, and bootstrap analyses indicated a significant indirect association between positive IFTs and innovative behavior via future work self salience and job crafting, while the direct association remained significant. These findings extend the followership literature by indicating that followers' own positive prototypes are associated with innovation, by examining self-concept-based intervening variables that complement established relational accounts, and by suggesting that positive role-related beliefs are associated with self-relevant cognitions. The design does not permit causal inference or inference about the temporal ordering of the intervening variables. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.