Positive psychological capital and innovative work behavior: a systematic literature review

In recent years, the concepts of positive psychological capital (PsyCap) and innovative work behavior (IWB) have attracted the attention of academics and human resources professionals for the benefits they bring to organizations. The aims of this article are: a) to present an overview of PsyCap and its relationship and influence as an antecedent, mediator, and moderator in IWB and; b) to analyze the variety of instruments that have been used to measure both constructs in the articles reviewed. A systematic literature review was conducted to obtain and analyze 39 publications in which both the terms, “psychological capital” and “innovative work behavior”, appeared, adopting a series of exclusion-inclusion criteria in our final list. Our findings provide evidence of the relationship between the different roles of PsyCap and IWB, and present the most commonly used tools to explore this relationship, as well as a series of suggestions to facilitate future research.