How leaders influence employees’
innovative behaviour
Jeroen P.J. de Jong
EIM Small Business Research and Consultancy, Zoetermeer,
The Netherlands, and
Deanne N. Den Hartog
University of Amsterdam Business School, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Purpose – To provide an inventory of leader behaviors likely to enhance employees’ innovative
behaviour, including idea generation and application behavior.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a combination of literature research and in-depth interviews, the paper explores leadership behaviors that stimulate employees’ idea generation and application behavior. The study was carried out in knowledge-intensive service firms (e.g. consultants, researchers, engineers).
Findings – It was found that there were 13 relevant leadership behaviors. Although innovative
behaviour is crucial in such firms, it has received very little attention from researchers. Leaders
influence employees’ innovative behaviour both through their deliberate actions aiming to stimulate idea generation and application as well as by their more general, daily behaviour.
Research limitations/implications – Future quantitative research could condense our overview of leader practices, explore which practices are most relevant to employees’ idea generation and/or application behaviour, which contingency factors influence the leadership-innovative behaviour connection and provide information as to whether different practices are relevant in other types of firms.
Originality/value – Neither the innovation nor the leadership field provides a detailed overview of specific behaviors that leaders might use to stimulate innovation by individual employees. This paper fills that void.
Keywords Leadership, Innovation, Employee behaviour, Ideas generation, Knowledge organizations
Paper type Research paper
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