The Effect of Empowering Leadership On Individual Innovative Behavior Mediated By Work Group Cohesiveness And Individual Learning Orientation In Company Distributor of Fast Moving Consumer Goods

The focus of the research aims to test the effect of empowering leadership, work group cohesion, individual learning orientation on individual innovative behavior. This study uses a quantitative approach where the minimum sample used is 150 respondents of PT. N employees collected through questionnaires. In sampling applied non-probability sampling using purposive sampling technique. This study was analyzed using Partial Least Square-SEM or called PLS-SEM. The results of the study indicate that empowering leadership has a positive and significant effect on work group cohesion. However, empowering leadership does not affect individual innovative behavior and individual learning orientation. In addition, work group cohesion has a positive and significant effect on individual innovative behavior and individual learning orientation. Individual learning orientation also affects individual innovative behavior. Meanwhile, work group cohesion mediates empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior. However, individual learning orientation does not mediate the influence of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior. In addition, it was found that individual learning orientation mediates the influence of work group cohesion on individual innovative behavior. Attribution-ShareAlike


Introduction
Quoting from the "Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia" stated that the sales level in the retail business sector in Indonesia has decreased in the last three years.This is due to the Covid-19 pandemic.In addition, the increasingly popular online stores have changed people's shopping behavior.Retail sales have continued to decline over the past three years.In 2021, wholesale retail sales reached $71.64 billion.This is down 12.4% from retail sales in 2020.In 2020, revenue was $81.82 billion.The sales value in 2020 was recorded to have decreased by 28.9% compared to 2019.The retail wholesale sales value was 115.01 billion USD in 2019, the highest value The Effect of Empowering Leadership On Individual Innovative Behavior Mediated By Work Group Cohesiveness And Individual Learning Orientation In Company Distributor of Fast Moving Consumer Goods in the last five years.Most of Indonesia's wholesale comes from traditional markets.In 2021, traditional market retail will reach 75% of total sales.Therefore, the government will immediately carry out a vaccination program for the Indonesian people to rise and be able to open their businesses (Pahlevi, 2022).
With that statement, all business sectors on a large, medium, to small scale, especially retail, must survive in the midst of the pandemic at that time and also the competition of online shopping which must compete to create innovations in order to compete in domestic and international markets.Still reporting from the same source, in Indonesia PT X is a fast-moving consumer goods company from Indonesia known as a successful market leader both nationally and has gone international.This is also what makes PT.N successful as a company that distributes processed food and beverages.
PT. X has succeeded in becoming a pioneer in its respective categories.Thus, the company strives for the best for the entire process from the beginning of its products to be stored safely and hygienically in storage in the warehouse, or to be delivered to its consumers (both retailers and grocery stores).In addition to ensuring that the products are safe, clean and still suitable for sale, the sales and marketing team needs to always innovate to innovate in marketing their products.By designing digital advertisements, or advertisements placed in public facilities, installing banners, etc.The Sales and Marketing Team has many sub-tasks or jobs that they have, according to the focus of the work and the different processes between one and another, besides that the Sales & Marketing Team certainly has a sales target.So that they are always required to innovate as attractively as possible in promoting and selling their products.An example of an innovation strategy carried out by the PT.N marketing team is collaborating with foreign models to create advertisements for their products.
When the sales and marketing team carries out several innovations to support their work in order to achieve shared prosperity and achieve work productivity goals.Then the innovation will greatly help their work in terms of time and energy efficiency.And make the company also add profit or benefit.The sales and marketing team is needed for manpower efficiency in human resource management.In the context of employment law in Indonesia, companies can terminate employees for reasons specified in related rules that have been set.The regulation on "Termination of Employment" in Indonesia is regulated in "Law No. 13 Year 2003 on Manpower" and "Government Regulation No. 35 of 2021 concerning Specified Time Work Agreements, Outsourcing, Working Time and Rest Time, and Termination of Employment."The prosedur of ending employment must be conducted by following the correct procedures, including the provision of severance pay or compensation in accordance with applicable regulations.
PT. N is one of the Single Distributor Companies of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry, PT.N certainly has standards and qualifications in selecting and retaining its employees.Therefore, from the factors that cause the Company to lay off employees based on the Labor Law and Government Regulations that have been mentioned, the layoff data for the last 3 years of PT.N. Most of the employee terminations were carried out because the employees resigned.The phenomenon of employee resignation occurs with various categories of reasons for employee resignation.This is a special concern for the Company.Employees resigning or resigning from work is a phenomenon that often occurs in the world of work.
There has been a phenomenon of employee resignation.One of the reasons employees resign is because they have problems with their superiors.This phenomenon is closely related to the variable of empowering leadership.How leaders can influence the process of learning, developing and innovating for the progress of the company.This incident is reinforced in findings of study Cheong et al., 2016, the influence of empowering leadership on the innovative behavior of individual employees is not fully understood, because when individuals given the power to stand alone, their actions may be inclined to bring about innovation behavior.Too much autonomy by leaders can inhibit innovative behavior (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013).
The results of this study contradict recent research by (Mutonyi et al., 2020), if the type of leadership has a positive and significant impact on encouraging innovative behavior in individuals.In addition, the mediating role of work group cohesion can influence empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior (Mutonyi et al., 2020).The reason employees resign is also because they feel uncomfortable with their work environment.This phenomenon is closely related to the variable of work group cohesion.How can an individual work well with his team and innovate if he still feels uncomfortable with his work environment.
The findings of Amabile et al. (2005), explain if the standard and cohesion of a particular the work team is able to determine how far to experienced and believed by individuals that they are innovative.Nonetheless, the findings of this study are not consistent with the findings of other studies by (Mutonyi et al., 2020) which suggests that work group cohesion does not affect innovative behavior in individuals.However, this could be the opposite if there is a mediating role from individual learning orientation (Mutonyi et al., 2020).
The next most common reason for employees to resign is feeling undeveloped.This phenomenon is closely related to the variable of individual learning orientation.Employees who feel undeveloped raise the question of how the learning orientation process is so that they do not develop in the Company.If employees feel undeveloped, how can an individual innovate, is it related to leaders who do not give their employees the opportunity to develop.(Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013) argue that leadership is very important to motivate employee study.Meanwhile, (Humborstad et al., 2014) identified the positive impact of empowering leadership on the direction of goal achievement, which was reinforced by the findings of (Mutonyi et al., 2020).Individual learning orientation also successfully mediates the influence of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior (Mutonyi et al., 2020).
According to this description, this research is relevant to how an employee has a level of innovative behavior and nature in the workplace to achieve the company's shared vision and mission, with supporting factors from other people such as superiors, teammates through good teamwork, and from oneself is the desire to continue learning new things to make new breakthroughs in the workplace.Therefore, the author conducted a study entitled "The Influence of Empowering leadership on Individual Innovative Behavior Mediated by Work Group Cohesion, and Individual Learning Orientation at Distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Companies (Empirical Study: Employees of PT.N)"

Research Methods
This study can be classified as a descriptive research type.The method that will be used is the quantitative research method.According to (Sinambela & Sinambela, 2021:35) the quantitative research method is a method whose research data is obtained from various numbers and then analyzed with predetermined statistical tools.The data collection method applied in this study is to use survey techniques.A questionnaire or The Effect of Empowering Leadership On Individual Innovative Behavior Mediated By Work Group Cohesiveness And Individual Learning Orientation In Company Distributor of Fast Moving Consumer Goods survey is a series of questions or written statements that have been previously formulated to respondents (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).The participants in this study were all employees of PT.N in the Sales and Marketing department.The researcher chose to research in the sales and marketing department only because the sales and marketing department is often at the forefront of understanding consumer needs and market trends.The sample criteria in this study were employees of PT.N in the sales and marketing department with a work period of more than 1 year, permanent employee status, with staff up, supervisory up, and managerial up positions.Then according to (Hair et al., 2019:280), the sample size is established based on the determination of the number of indicators to be multiplied by a minimum of 5 to 10.Where in this study there are 14 indicators and take the maximum calculation value of 10 (The maximum of observations to variables is 10:1).So the minimum number of samples is 14 x 10 = 140.So based on this theory, the researcher set the number of samples at a minimum of 140 because it was considered in accordance with the theory.This study uses the "Partial Least Square (PLS)" technique with "SmartPLS 4.0."Based on this explanation, the researcher has designed a hypothesis to test: H1: Empowering leadership has a positive and significant effect on individual innovative behavior.H2: Empowering leadership has a positive and significant effect on work group cohesion.

Result Descriptive Test
Descriptive tests are statistical methods used to describe and summarize data from a population or sample without making inferences or testing hypotheses.Descriptive tests focus on presenting data concisely and informatively to understand the basic characteristics of the data collected.Source: Data processed by researchers (2024) In this study, the demographic characteristics of respondents were used for data analysis.Table 1 illustrates the distribution of respondents by gender.Of the total 150 respondents, 122 (approximately 81%) were male, while 28 (approximately 19%) were female.Furthermore, the table also displays the age distribution of respondents.Most of the respondents were between 30 to 39 years old, as many as of 64 respondents (around 43%).The next age range is 20 to 29 years old with 48 respondents (around 32%), and 40 to 49 years old with 26 respondents (around 17%).Only 12 respondents (about 8%) were older than 49 years old.This data shows the age diversity among the respondents in this study.Finally, the table also assesses the education level of the respondents.The majority of respondents had completed secondary education (SMA), with 12 respondents (around 8%), while vocational secondary education (SMK) was represented by 18 respondents (around 12%).A total of 33 respondents (around 23%) had a diploma degree (D1-D3), with details of D1 and D2 with no respondents (0%), D3 with 14 respondents (around 9.5%), D4 with 1 respondent (around 0.5%), S1 with 99 respondents (around 66%), and S2 with 6 respondents (around 4%).This table provides insight into the educational background of the respondents, which provides an overview of the sample's educational profile.Overall, the demographic profiles listed in these tables provide valuable insights into the characteristics of the research participants, which form the basis for further analysis related to the research topic.

Outer Model Evaluation
The measurement model, or outer model, in research using "Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) or Partial Least Squares (PLS) is an element that describes the relationship between latent variables (constructs) and the indicators used to measure these variables."This model explains how latent variables are measured by existing indicators.Source: Data analyzed by researchers ( 2024) Figure 1 and Table 1 shows that the outer loadings values of all indicators on all variables have exceeded the critical limit, which is > 0.5.High loading factors indicate a strong relationship between the indicators and the latent variables being measured.

Hypothesis Testing
Hypothesis testing is a statistical procedure used to determine whether there is sufficient evidence in sample data to support or reject an initial hypothesis.The Path Coefficients test will be used as a basis for testing the hypothesis in the study based on predetermined standards, namely the hypothesis is considered accepted "if the P value <0.05", while the hypothesis is considered unacceptable "if the value in the P value column> 0.05".The findings from after testing the proposed hypothesis, show that: 1. "H1: The results of the statistical test found that empowering leadership has no effect on individual innovative behavior with a t value of 0.294 and a P value (0.769> 0.05).So H1 is rejected."2. "H2: The results of the statistical test found that empowering leadership has a positive and significant effect on work group cohesion with a t value of 5.049 and a P value (0.000 <0.05)So H2 is accepted."3. "H3: The results of the statistical test found that empowering leadership has no effect on individual learning orientation with a t value of 1.803 and a P value (0.072> 0.05).So H3 is rejected."4. "H4: The results of the statistical test found that work group cohesion has a positive and significant effect on individual innovative behavior with a t value of 9.542 and a P value (0.000 <0.05)So H4 is accepted."5. "H5: The results of the statistical test found that work group cohesion has a positive and significant effect on individual learning orientation with a t value of 7.346 and a P value (0.000 <0.05)So H5 is accepted."6. "H6: The results of the statistical test found that individual learning orientation has an effect on individual innovative behavior with a t value of 4.181 and a P value (0.000 <0.05)So H6 is accepted."

Discussion The influence of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior
The results of the study indicate that empowering leadership does not have a positive and significant influence on individual innovative behavior at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, especially in an empirical study of PT employees.N with a t value of 0.294 and a P value (0.769> 0.05).variations in empowering leaderships applied by management do not directly encourage employees to behave innovatively.This means that changes or adjustments in empowering leaderships, be it transformational, transactional, or other empowering leaderships, do not have a real impact on the ability or willingness of individuals to generate new ideas, introduce more efficient work methods, or innovate in their daily work.
The results of this analysis have the same results as the findings from Endarwati et al. (2022).However, the findings of this study differ from the results of previous studies by (Kurniyati, 2018) shows that the idealistic influence dimension, the motivational drive dimension, the thought generation dimension, and the individual judgment dimension can affect personal innovative behavior.The research also adds that the idealistic influence dimension, the motivational drive dimension, thought generation dimension, and personal judgment dimension will have an impact on the performance of MSMEs.Another study by (Octavia & Ratnaningsih, 2017)

The influence of empowering leadership on work group cohesion
The findings of the study demonstrate that empowering leadership significantly and positively affects work groups cohesion at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, especially in an empirical study of PT.N employees with a t value of 5.049 and a P value (0.000 <0.05).This means that variations in empowering leaderships applied by management directly contribute to increasing solidarity, cooperation, and unity among work group members.When leaders are able to adopt an effective leadership approach, be it through transformational leadership that inspires and motivates, or transactional leadership that provides clarity and structure, this tends to strengthen interpersonal relationships within the team, increase collaboration, and create a more harmonious and integrated work environment.As a result, work group cohesion becomes more solid, which in turn can contribute to better team performance and the achievement of organizational goals more effectively.This study confirms the importance of the role of leadership in building and maintaining a solid team in an FMCG company environment such as PT.N.
The outcomes of the research are similar to findings from earlier studies conducted by (Widyaswari et al., 2016) who found that there was a significant influence of organizational culture and empowering leadership on teamwork partially on organizational culture variables on teamwork.Previous research by (Musslifah, 2024) concluded that an appropriate empowering leadership and a harmonious relationship between them and employees can affect the quality of teamwork.Communicating and cooperating well among teammates are key factors to achieve the quality of teamwork.So, it is recommended that companies can pay attention to the leader's empowering leadership and increase team collaboration in order to achieve the company's vision and an increase in employee work results.

The influence of empowering leadership on individual learning orientation
The results of the study show that empowering leadership does not have a positive and significant effect on individual learning orientation at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, especially in an empirical study of PT employees.N with a t value of 1.803 and a P value (0.072> 0.05).Variations in empowering leadership applied by management do not directly encourage or influence the willingness of individuals to learn and develop themselves.This means that changes in leadership approaches, be it transformational leadership that focuses on inspiration and motivation, or transactional leadership that emphasizes structure and rewards, do not have a real impact on employee enthusiasm to continue learning and improving their skills.The results of this study differ from previous research by (Handayani & Heri, 2019) concluded that both transformational and transactional leadership have an influence on emphasizing teachers' learning and innovative ability, however, transformational leadership has a greater impact on it.In addition, women are considered more suitable for the position of principal than men.

The influence of work group cohesion on individual innovative behavior
The results of the study show that work group cohesion has a positive and significant influence on individual innovative behavior at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, in an empirical study of PT employees.N with a t value of 9.542 and a P value (0.000 <0.05).This means that when work groups in a company show high solidarity, close cooperation, and strong interpersonal relationships, individuals in the group tend to be more innovative.Work group cohesion creates an environment that supports creativity and the courage to try new things, because group members feel supported and motivated by their colleagues.In a compact work atmosphere, employees are more likely to share ideas, provide input, and collaborate in finding innovative solutions.The outcomes of the research are similar to findings from earlier studies conducted by (Aaron, 2023) showing that work group cohesion has a significant and positive effect on innovative behavior.Another study by (Pujiandrie et al., 2024) showed that work group cohesiveness has a significant positive effect on innovative behavior in generation Z. Similar research by (Kum, 2023) showed that transformational leadership and collaborative effort Exert a substantial and positive impact on innovative work behavior, with knowledge sharing strengthens that influence.

The influence of work group cohesion on individual learning orientation
The results of the study indicate that work group cohesion has a positive and significant influence on individual learning orientation at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, in an empirical study of PT.N employees with a t value of 7.346 and a P value (0.000 <0.05).This means that when work groups in a company show high solidarity, close collaboration, and strong interpersonal relationships, individuals in the group are more likely to have a good learning orientation.Work group cohesion creates a supportive and safe environment for members to share knowledge, skills, and experiences.In a cohesive group, employees feel more motivated and encouraged to continue learning and developing themselves because they get support and encouragement from their colleagues.So with cohesiveness, group members are more likely to engage in joint learning activities, such as group discussions, internal training, and sharing best practices.This study emphasizes the importance of building and maintaining team cohesion to encourage individual learning orientation, which can ultimately improve the overall capabilities and performance of FMCG organizations such as PT N.

The influence of individual learning orientation on individual innovative behavior
The results of the study indicate that individual learning orientation influences individual innovative behavior at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, especially in an empirical study of PT employees.N with a t value of 4.181 and a P value (0.000 <0.05).This means that individuals who have a strong learning orientation, namely those who actively seek opportunities to learn, develop new skills, and increase knowledge, tend to exhibit innovative behavior in their work.When employees have a positive attitude towards learning and self-development, they are more likely to implement new ideas, seek creative solutions, and explore innovative work methods.This learning orientation encourages them to continue to seek new ways to complete tasks and face challenges, thereby contributing to increased innovation in the work environment.This study underlines the importance of supporting and facilitating learning orientation among employees as a strategy to increase innovative behavior and, ultimately, the performance of FMCG companies such as PT.N. The outcomes of the research are similar to findings from earlier studies conducted by (Shalma, 2024) Learning Orientation has a significant influence on Innovative Work Behavior in SMEs in Kebumen Regency.Another study by (Nugroho & Wibowo, 2023)  The results of the study by (Noerchoidah et al., 2022) showed that emphasis on the learning process has a positive and significant impact on innovative work behavior.Then, emphasis on the learning process encourages creative self-efficacy, which has the impact of spurring innovative work behavior.

The influence of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior is mediated by work group cohesion
The results of the study indicate that work group cohesion mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and individual innovative behavior in distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, especially in an empirical study of PT.N employees with a t value of 4.894 and a P value (0.000 <0.05).This means that although empowering leadership may not directly have a significant effect on individual innovative behavior, work group cohesion acts as an important connecting factor in this relationship.In other words, an effective empowering leadership can increase work group cohesion, which in turn contributes to increased individual innovative behavior.When leaders succeed in building and maintaining team cohesion, group members feel more supported and motivated to innovate.Group cohesion creates a conducive work atmosphere for sharing ideas and collaboration, which encourages individuals to be more active in generating and implementing new ideas.This study emphasizes the importance of the role of work group cohesion as a mediator in the relationship between empowering leadership and innovative behavior, indicating that success in encouraging individual innovation is greatly influenced by the quality of interaction and cooperation within the team.

The influence of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior is mediated by individual learning orientation
The results of the study indicate that individual learning orientation does not mediate the influence of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, especially in an empirical study of PT employees.N with a t value of 1.571 and a P value (0.117 <0.05).This means that although empowering leadership may affect individual innovative behavior, individual learning orientation does not serve as an intermediary in this relationship.Changes in empowering leadership do not directly affect individual learning orientation, and individual learning orientation itself does not function as a bridge connecting empowering leadership with innovative behavior.This study indicates that other factors may be more important in mediating the relationship between empowering leadership and individual innovation, or that individual learning orientation may not be strong enough as a mediator in this context.As a result, focusing on developing individual learning orientation may not be effective in mediating the influence of empowering leadership on innovative behavior, and firms need to explore other factors that may play a role in enhancing innovation.

The effect of work group cohesion on individual innovative behavior is mediated by individual learning orientation
The results of the study indicate that individual learning orientation mediates the effect of work group cohesion on individual innovative behavior at distributors of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, especially in an empirical study of PT employees.N with a t value of 30574 and a P value (0.000 <0.05).This means that work group cohesion, which includes solidarity, cooperation, and strong interpersonal relationships within the team, has a positive effect on individual learning orientation.Furthermore, individual learning orientation serves as a bridge connecting work group cohesion with innovative behavior.When the work group is cohesive, employees feel more encouraged and supported to improve their learning orientation, which in turn encourages them to be more innovative.In other words, cohesiveness in the work group creates an environment that facilitates learning and development, thereby increasing the tendency personal to create and apply new thinking.This study emphasizes the importance of work group cohesion in influencing individual learning orientation, which then contributes to innovative behavior, indicating that social factors in the team have a significant impact on encouraging innovation in the work environment.

Conclusion
The study's findings suggest that empowering leadership has a substantial and positive impact on work group cohesion.Besides that, empowering leadership does not impact individual innovative behavior or individual learning orientation.On the other hand, work group cohesion positively and significantly influences individual innovative behavior and individual learning orientation.Individual learning orientation also impacts individual innovative behavior.Additionally, work group cohesion acts as a mediator in the relationship between empowering leadership and individual innovative behavior.However, individual learning orientation does not mediate the effect of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior.On the other hand, individual learning orientation is found to mediate the influence of work group cohesion on individual innovative behavior.
H3: Empowering leadership has a positive and significant effect on individual learning orientation.H4: Work group cohesion has a positive and significant effect on individual innovative behavior.H5: Work group cohesion has a positive and significant effect on individual learning orientation.H6: Individual learning orientation has an effect on individual innovative behavior.H7: Work group cohesion mediates Empowering leadership on Individual Innovative Behavior.H8: Individual learning orientation mediates the influence of empowering leadership on individual innovative behavior.H9: Individual learning orientation mediates the influence of work group cohesion on individual innovative behavior.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Research Framework Source: Data analyzed by the researchers (2024)

Table 4 . Hypothesis Test of Mediation Effect
also found that there was a notable positive correlation between transformational empowering leadership and The Effect of Empowering Leadership On Individual Innovative Behavior Mediated By Work Group Cohesiveness And Individual Learning Orientation In Company Distributor of Fast Moving Consumer Goods employee innovative behavior.Transformational empowering leadership provides an effective contribution of 5% to innovative behavior.
found that the learning orientation variable has a positive effect on the innovative work behavior of inmates who participate in work activities at the Class IIB Purwokerto Narcotics Prison.One effective way to improve the learning orientation of inmates is through skills training.The Effect of Empowering Leadership On Individual Innovative Behavior Mediated By Work Group Cohesiveness And Individual Learning Orientation In Company Distributor of Fast Moving Consumer Goods The Effect of Empowering Leadership On Individual Innovative Behavior Mediated By Work Group Cohesiveness And Individual Learning Orientation In Company Distributor of Fast Moving Consumer Goods