Project Success Through Organizational Climate and Work Behavior: Systematic Literature Review

Introduction

Berberoglu (2018) said that it may be challenging to enhance organization in addition to performance without fostering a supportive IOC. Similarly, research indicates that augmenting an employee's RFC might foster a sense of commitment among them toward the change. Therefore, improving RFC is essential to raising the rate of successful change implementation (Haffar et al., 2023).                Correspondingly, IWB used by workers serves as a major motivator, inspiring people to make improvements and use innovation (Sengupta et al., 2023). Numerous research findings have demonstrated that IWB greatly improves company success (Abun et al., 2023). Similarly, there is a knowledge gap since the majority of research has concentrated on examining factors at the personal or organizational levels alone, rather than both (Sengupta et al., 2023). Likewise, there are insufficient studies examining the association between innovative organizational climate and innovative work behavior that could ultimately lead to organizational innovation (Ismail & Mohamed, 2022).

Thus, to close the gap, this systematic review looked at how IOC, RFC, and IWB affects the organizational performance. A systematic literature review (SLR) is the method used to write a review (Shaikh et al., 2020). SLRs use a reproducible procedure to evaluate literature (Xiao & Watson, 2019). Finding the need or issue that the SLR aims to address is an essential initial phase in planning the project (Shahbaz et al., 2022). It makes sense to do an SLR since it clarifies for the researcher the relationship of the individual level variable –Readiness for Change organization-level variable – Innovative Organizational Climate with project success, emphasizing how these relationships are mediated by innovative work behavior. Therefore, this systematic review will allow modern advancements in industries by focusing on providing reliable solutions to improving the climate of an organization and change implementation in an organization that leads towards innovative behavior of employees.

Review Questions and Themes

RQ1: How an innovative organizational climate leads towards project success through innovative work behavior.

RQ2: How readiness for change leads toward project success through innovative work behavior.

RQ3: How innovative work behaviour leads towards project success.

The systematic literature review (SLR) focused on issues such as creative organizational environment, readiness for change, project success, creative work behavior, social cognition theory, and social exchange theory. The primary themes discussed in the review are highlighted in Table 1.

Table 1. Review questions and themes

Materials and Methods

Search Strategy

To improve the reliability of the findings, journal publications that have undergone peer review were collected from scientific databases such as Sage, Science Direct, Emerald, Elsevier, and IJPM.

To create a relationship between the terms and the level of analysis, theoretical conceptualizations of project success (PS), social exchange theory (SET), readiness for change (RFC), innovative work behavior (IWB), innovative organizational climate (IOC), and social cognition theory (SCT) were employed to produce search phrases along with the keywords "organizational climate," "innovative work environment," "innovative climate," "readiness," "work behavior," "innovative work behavior," and "project success". To narrow down the findings, specifically used the terms "readiness for change and project success," "innovative work behavior and innovative organizational climate," and "innovative work behavior and project success."

Selection Criteria

To choose high-quality studies that were related to our research issue, the researcher employed the following set of standards:

Scientific Criterion

(1) Publication in peer-reviewed journals ensured that studies had the proper methodological quality. Critically analyzed, research papers presented in dissertations were considered acceptable. (2) Research that incorporated field-based analyses of real organizational units. (3) The researcher restricts their focus to English-language articles to minimize the requirement for translation and streamline the process of collecting data. (4) Furthermore, (8) To enhance the quantity of the available studies, the research period has been extended from 2019 till the present. (5) Documentation of at least one study variable was necessary in order to conduct an analysis. (6) The PRISMA chart technique is employed in the selection of various research publications.

On the other hand, (7) in order to avoid selecting articles that do not align with the goals of the review paper, a criterion for exclusion was implemented. (8) Except English language, articles published in other languages were not taken into consideration because of the complexity of the translation processes. (9) To expand the relevant literature, journal papers published before 2019 were also omitted. (10) The study's exclusive focus was on research published in the previous five years. The current systematic review's inclusion and exclusion criteria are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Results and Discussion

According to some writers, 50% of organizational change initiatives that fail can be attributed to a lack of adequate readiness (Qureshi et al., 2020). The organization needs its members' readiness before making a change (Rehman et al., 2021). Therefore, one of the most important success elements when organizations execute changes is readiness for change (Shahbaz et al., 2019b). Similarly, Innovation is oriented through an innovative organizational climate (Abun et al., 2023). The evaluation and understanding of employees' activities and behavior are given high priority by modern companies, which have increased interest in understanding organizational climate (Hussainy, 2022). IWB used by workers serves as a major motivator, inspiring people to make improvements and use innovation (Sengupta et al., 2023). There is no denying that IWB has a big impact on how well an organization functions. Hence these variables will be studied to add new literature in the field. The PRISMA chart that describes the selection process for the different research articles is shown in Figure 1 below.

Project Success (PS)

The first theme talked about project success in various industries. Seven studies offer further information on PS from the included research articles where all the articles used project success as a dependent variable; Table 3 summarizes their specifics.

The first research was to determine the impact of modest leadership on project success (Ali et al., 2020). The findings demonstrated a positive association between project success and modest leadership and thus favored the hypothesis. The second study, Sarwar et al. (2020) aimed to determine how IOC and IWB affect the likelihood of a given project being successful, where work culture and gender have a positive moderating effect. The result of the study demonstrated that IWB mediates the relationship between IOC and PS, hence providing support for the proposed hypothesis. Similarly, the third study revealed knowledge sharing as a strong mediator and a positive correlation between project success and psychological empowerment (Khan et al., 2020). The hypothesis of the investigation was accepted as the research found that employees on projects with high levels of creativity are more likely to succeed when they also have higher levels of psychological empowerment.

Correspondingly, Project success was the dependent variable in another investigation with an accepted hypothesis (Khattak et al., 2022). The study's main goal was to offer an alternative viewpoint on the crucial role that authentic managers play in project success. In the next study significance of psychological empowerment as a mediator between transformational leadership (TL) and project success (PS) was hypothesized and evaluated and findings demonstrated a positive correlation between the variables (Fareed et al., 2023). Ellahi et al. (2022) revealed new antecedents, the findings indicate that because servant leadership has a significant impact on project success, project managers should practice it. Consequently, the investigation appeared to support the variable. The last study in the review revealed that transformational leadership and top management support had a big influence on project success (Fareed et al., 2023). Concluded that the established hypothesis for project success was supported by every study in the systematic review.

Table 3. Project success; synthesis of findings on project success

Innovative Organizational Climate (IOC)

In the second theme, an innovative organizational climate was examined. The 10 articles on organizational climate are compiled in Table 4.

The first study examined the significance of an organization's climate along with image outcome expectations, and they provided firms with suggestions on how to enhance employee-driven innovation (Battistelli et al., 2021). In the next study, Ekmekcioglu and Öner (2023) indicated a substantial and favorable relationship between servant leadership, IOC, and employees' IWB. Additionally, one more research discovered that workers in innovative environments are more likely to adhere to the incremental implicit person theory (Hendrikx et al., 2022). Based on the findings by Sarwar et al. (2020), The study supported the idea that, in comparison to workers in the public sector, private organizations are largely impacted by IOC concerning IWB.

Similarly, the findings of the next paper offer managers valuable insights on how to foster a favorable perceived learning atmosphere, which in turn increases the beneficial inventive consequences of deployed systems (Guo & Wang, 2020). Then, Su et al. (2022) revealed that the improvisatory behavior of employees is influenced by the distinctive attributes of the companies in which they work. Another study also resulted in a favorable innovative climate that presented improved communication allowing the organization to function in an environment of stability and react to business difficulties more quickly (Tajpour et al., 2023). Next was a comparative research in which the research's findings reveal that every aspect of organizational climate affects faculty members' ability to feel less emotionally worn out (Dinibutun et al., 2020). By the findings of Baig et al. (2022) the results of the additional research demonstrated that job crafting has a significant direct and indirect influence on employees' inventive work behavior in a diverse work environment. The last study included in the systematic review revealed by shedding light on how the outside world affects people, our research advances knowledge of the precise function that regional innovation climate plays in fostering creativity and job happiness (Zhu et al., 2022).

Table 4. Innovative organizational climate; synthesis of findings on IOC

Readiness for Change (RFC)

Following that, the third theme examined Readiness for change. The four articles on readiness for change are summarized in Table 4.

In the first review study, readiness for change was used as a mediator (Sengupta et al., 2023). The study represents the first in regard to Indian businesses that have expanded internationally by incorporating crucial elements such as genuine leadership, readiness to change, and inventive work behavior. The results revealed that adequate leadership leads towards suitable readiness in the employees and thus leads to a strongly mediated relationship between variables. The findings have significant relevance for managers or company leaders who want to foster innovative work practices in their personnel by encouraging their readiness to change.

The second study (Yeap et al., 2021) again used readiness for change as a mediator. The study reveals how readiness for change has a mediating effect on the correlation among variables in the setting of Malaysian educational institutions. According to the study, managerial management at polytechnics must improve lecturers' readiness to change, which will boost their commitment to the teaching profession. In another study, Katsaros et al. (2020) stated that leadership's Impact on the profitability of the company and the moderating effect of employees' readiness to adapt. Mattar (2021) intended to draw attention to emerging organizational factors that are infrequently investigated in the setting of changes in organizations. The research emphasizes the significance of organizational change is underscored by its implementation of a technologically driven innovation.

Table 5. Readiness for change; synthesis of findings on RFC

Innovative Work Behavior (IWB)

The fourth theme, which involved the review of 17 studies, was innovative work behavior. Table 6 presents a summary of 17 out of the 50 studies that shed light on the matter.

The first review paper was a bibliometric study that mapped countries, keywords and authors to analyze the "innovative behavior" research that was indexed in the Scopus database and results demonstrated the importance of innovative behavior for global firms (Salam & Senin, 2022). Another paper advanced our understanding of how innovative work practices are enhanced by an organization's climate along with image outcome expectation (Battistelli et al., 2021). The results emphasize the significance of an organization's climate, and they provide firms with suggestions on how to enhance employee-driven invention. One more study used innovative work behavior as a dependent variable (Bogilović et al., 2021). The findings of the study revealed that visible dissimilarity had a negative mediated influence on innovative work behavior, although this moderation effect lessened it. The study recommended that while encouraging IWB, employers focus on fostering an environment that lessens the adverse impacts of perceived differences in the workplace. Similarly, the next investigation revealed that employee innovative work behavior is strongly and favorably correlated with innovative organizational climate and servant leadership (Ekmekcioglu & Öner, 2023). Venketsamy and Lew (2022) stated that the association among creative work behavior and intrinsic motivation was positively modulated by organizational support. The study offers fresh evidence of how inventive work behavior is influenced by the relationship between the synergy of external incentives and internal motivation. Additionally, another study supported in favor of variable innovative work behavior that revealed innovative work behavior was significantly influenced by authentic leadership (Sengupta et al., 2023).

One study by Wynen et al. (2020) focus was to examine the cascading impact of organizational reforms on support from management for IWB and demonstrated support for innovative work behavior. One more research showed the benefits of happiness at the workplace encouraged Malaysian institutions to support staff members' IWB and encourage these qualities in them (Al-shami et al., 2023). Another research by Cangialosi et al. (2020) investigated the correlation between innovative work behavior, the workplace's learning potential, and the learning climate where the findings supported the hypothesis. The investigation provides recommendations for companies seeking to enhance innovative work behavior, emphasizing the importance of a positive learning environment. One more study offered a unique perspective on the formation of teams in the IT industry that aimed to close the evaluation gap by examining every aspect of IWB (Shahid et al., 2022). This investigation can serve as a foundation for enhancing employees' competencies, ranging from concept generation to execution. Furthermore, the findings of  additional research showed that innovative work behavior among employees is positively impacted by transformational leadership (Afsar & Umrani, 2019).

Khan et al. (2020) highlighted in an article leadership styles effect on inventive work practices. The study's conclusions suggest that academic leaders in academic environments, especially universities, could inspire their staff members to look for workable answers to problems and to be more imaginative and creative. Whereas, the next research conducted the association between individual innovative behavior at work and a developing human resource arrangement, as well as the part that an empowered work environment plays in the interaction. Results showed that the association was strengthened (Chang et al., 2021). The next study experienced how organizational goals are achieved by encouraging knowledge workers at Chinese high-tech companies to engage in creative work practices. The results confirmed the connection between IWB and SL (Khattak et al., 2023). Baig et al. (2022) focused on the behavior of nurses and stated that the results of the investigation offer proof of the noteworthy positive correlation between variables and offer empirical backing for them. Also suggested that healthcare administrators can incorporate job crafting approaches and managing diversity policies into their efforts to encourage inventive work behavior among nurses. The additional review revealed that innovative work behaviors among employees are favorably correlated with transformational leadership (Tan et al., 2021). Lastly, Bos-Nehles and Veenendaal (2019) investigated the influence of the employees' perceptions of HR practices on their innovative work behavior and contend that HRM implementers are crucial for IWB.

Table 6. Innovative work behavior; synthesis of findings on IWB

Social Exchange Theory (SET)

The fifth theme included social exchange theory (SET). Table 7 provides a summary of 9 studies that employed social exchange theory. The phenomenon of how to strengthen interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, and employee commitment, gratitude, and trust is explained by social exchange theory. Most of the review articles in SLR integrate social exchange theory with variable innovative work behavior that enriches the current investigation's theoretical foundation.

The first study revealed that SET offers a solid and practical theoretical framework for the study's hypotheses (Sengupta et al., 2023). Similarly, the second study used the theory of social exchange as a theoretical foundation, the article explained how psychological responsibility brought about by feeling supported by the company can improve creativity and work engagement (Inam et al., 2021). Third, Al-shami et al. (2023) demonstrated substantial evidence of the happiness at the workplace influence on organizational citizenship behavior, hence expanding the social exchange theory. Nevertheless, the next study supported the social exchange theory that served the framework, the study investigated how innovative work behavior and the psychological empowerment of employees (Al Dabouba et al., 2023).

Aboramadan et al. (2022) analyzed how green leadership influences workers' green behavior in a hotel organization, using the idea of social exchange. Social exchange theory was identified as the primary theoretical framework in a different investigation. The SET is applied in the study to explain workplace behavior and shed light on the social dynamics between department heads and lecturers (Yeap et al., 2021). Khattak et al. (2022) stated that the study added to the literature body by identifying novel causes and consequences related to job engagement through the lens of SET. Conversely, the next study  used social exchange theory, which hasn't been put to the test in Pakistani society to look into inventive work behavior (Khan et al., 2020). And lastly, Chang et al. (2021) stated that the study, which is based on SET, aims to determine how DHRC affects employees' IWB and how an empowering climate affects these relationships.

Table 7. Social exchange theory; synthesis of findings on SET

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

Social cognition theory is included in the final review theme. Table 8 provides a summary of 2 articles that employed SCT. Only three studies focused on social cognitive theory in a systematic literature review of fifty articles. The first study utilized the framework of social cognitive theory, developed theories, and investigated the insight relationship between variables (Fareed et al., 2023). In the lens of SCT, Behavior among humans results from a combination of surrounding resources and limitations (environment), motivation inside, and self-determination. The second research expanded the use of social cognitive theory by highlighting how information sharing plays a mediating function in promoting particular aspects of creative behavior (Rehmani et al., 2023). The third study involved social cognition theory to describe how lecturers' commitment to change is engendered by potential impacts of external components, which include transformational leadership as well as their readiness for changes (Yeap et al., 2021).

Table 8. Social cognition theory; synthesis of findings on SCT

Contribution

From a theoretical viewpoint, our findings support the postulations regarding IOC, IWB, and RFC under social cognitive and social exchange theories. First, our study reinforces the theory of social exchange (SET) with variable organizational climate and inventive work behavior in most of the review studies that enrich the current investigation's theoretical foundation. The theory integrates the depth of how employees behave, empowering organizations and creating special social exchange interactions, and the area of management research that has been studied under social exchange theory most extensively is workplace relationships (Shahbaz et al., 2019a). As a result, drawing on SET, our results encourage the premise that organizational atmosphere is key in transforming innovative work behavior.

Similarly, three investigations explored social cognitive theory (SCT) in the systematic review. Our study, based on social cognitive theory, shows a significant favorable impact on project success, innovative work behavior, and change readiness. SCT views human behavior as the outcome of a combination of external resources and constraints (surroundings), internal motivation, and self-determination. The study emphasizes the significance of individuals' opinions and views, such as self-efficacy and locus of control for an organization's readiness. Therefore, SCT implies a focus on the behaviors of the people and their acceptance of change in the current review.

From the literature perspective, our study's findings contribute to the expanding discussions about the association between readiness for change, project success, innovative organizational climate, and innovative work behavior which has been overblown in previous research. The conclusions of the first theme, project success, which is an organization's ultimate goal, provide solid evidence in terms of IOC, IWB, and leadership styles. The findings say that an innovative climate provides the likelihood of a given project being successful. As well as the innovative behavior of employees equally contributes to enhancing the overall performance of the organization. Hence, most of the studies in a systematic review regarding project success contribute new insights to the literature by demonstrating how the employees on projects with high levels of creativity are more likely to succeed and how project performance improves through an organization's supportive and inventive environment.

Further, the next theme of SLR, innovative organizational climate, contributes to the research by presenting significant evidence linking the work behaviors of employees in any firm. According to the findings of the organizational climate research, a favorable perceived learning and innovative atmosphere allows the organization to function in a stable setting and respond to business challenges more swiftly. Likewise, an organizational climate has emerged as a crucial metaphor for leading and motivating employees and plays a vital role in increasing worker trust, dedication, and improvisatory behavior, which leads to innovative work behavior. As described, in light of the evidence found in the systematic review, an organizational climate is as important for IWB as achieving the company's goals.

Correspondingly, readiness for change has also been identified as a crucial variable in coping with technological advancements that lead to innovation. It has been shown that adequate readiness fosters the innovative behavior of employees. The findings offered managerial information that RFC needs to be strengthened to boost the commitment level of employees. Given the above, readiness for change raises a noteworthy contribution to literature as it is one of the most important success elements when organizations demand changes. Finally, the literature includes the theme of innovative work behavior, which is one of the growing discussions supporting the idea that IWB helps firms achieve a feasible advantage. The findings are supported by substantial evidence that an encouraging, inventive, and supportive organizational climate promotes innovative work behavior. This results in a positive correlation between innovative work behavior and organizational atmosphere. In addition, it is well recognized that employees have an immense effect on the organization's performance.  It can be concluded that by examining all of these variables together, the review adds new evidence to the literature.

Conclusion

The comprehensive literature study revealed that IOC, RFC, and IWB significantly influence the success of the project. In addition, the results show project success is the ultimate goal of any organization. Whereas, it is also revealed that a suitable and innovative organizational climate plays a vital role in fostering creativity and innovativeness in the behavior of employees. Therefore, the results implied that adequate support by the organization develops innovative work behavior. Similarly, the readiness for change should also encouraged in order to attain productive outcomes. Consequently, the results displayed a strong association among IWB, IOC, and RFC. The systematic review revealed that most of the studies used the theoretical foundation of SET supporting innovative work behavior and organizational climate whereas social cognition theory focused on change readiness.

The findings of the systematic review study revealed that an innovative climate of organization and change readiness are essential to stay viable in the era of innovation and have a substantial impact on the inventive behavior of the people that ultimately leads to successful projects. Therefore, adopting an innovative organizational atmosphere, being prepared for change, and exhibiting creative work behavior are essential for maximizing project success rates. The study's results may assist in understanding the development of interventions that can train change readiness among employees and an inventive climate of the organization to exhibit innovative behavior adequately, hence increasing the project's success ratio.

The present systematic literature review included 50 studies. Additional research can be reproduced with a larger number of studies. The systematic review examined how an innovative organizational atmosphere and readiness for change impact project performance by influencing creative work behavior in cross-sectional research. Future investigators should use longitudinal study to examine the association between factors, as integrating additional variables can improve generalizability. The current study combined social exchange and social cognition theories. Future research can identify the relationship between the variables utilizing other theories in the theoretical framework. Finally, the systematic review did not address leadership style because it was outside of its scope. Future research can incorporate various leadership styles in the scope, which might be fruitful in bringing fresh insights into the literature.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to my supervisor, who assisted me with writing the above article.  

Conflict of Interest: None

Financial Support: None

Ethics Statement: None