The impact of psychological capital, cognitive diversity and temporal ambidexterity on adaptive performance through innovative work behaviour among IT employees in India

PurposeThis study aims to examine how the Information Technology (IT) sector in India is changing sporadically to be relevant to be able to meet the changing demands. Companies are striving hard to be able to leverage any such factor that adds to the competitive advantage needed to survive in this dynamic market. Therefore, an organization has to be able to keep innovation as its primary objective.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a cross-sectional research design and the data from 303 IT professionals were used to validate the relationships among psychological capital (PSC), cognitive diversity (COD), temporal ambidexterity (TEA), innovative work behaviour (IWB) and adaptive performance (ADP). Hypotheses testing was done through the SEM and mediation analysis was conducted using bootstrap estimation in SPSS AMOS.FindingsThe results suggest that PSC significantly affects both IWB and ADP. COD has a significant effect only on IWB. In addition, directly impacts ADP. Mediation analysis indicates that COD has full mediation between the relationship of IWB and ADP, whereas PSC has a partial mediation. However, TEA has no mediation indicating that an employee needs to have support from his organization to be ambidextrous.Originality/valueThis study shows how significant innovation and IWBs are in the context of the IT sector and how positive thinking, a diverse set of people and the balance between short-term and long-term goals could promote IWBs in an individual leading to better ADP.