Digital Leadership and Innovative Work Behavior among Civil Servants in North Maluku: The Mediating Roles of Psychological Empowerment and Work Engagemen

This study investigates how digital leadership enhances innovative work behavior among civil servants in the Provincial Government of North Maluku by examining the mediating roles of psychological empowerment and work engagement. An explanatory quantitative approach was employed, utilizing a Likert-scale questionnaire administered to employees involved in data management, information systems, and digital services across 46 regional organizations. A total of 173 valid responses were analyzed using variance-based structural equation modeling. The results show that digital leadership has no direct influence on innovative work behavior, but has a significant positive effect on psychological empowerment and work engagement, both of which significantly enhance innovative work behavior. The proposed model explains 53.9 percent of the variance in innovative work behavior. These findings indicate that digital leadership becomes more effective when it strengthens employees' psychological and motivational resources, proving that successful digital transformation depends not only on technological adoption but also on human resource readiness and capability in the public sector.