Linking transformational leadership, creativity, innovation, and innovation-supportive climate

Abstract

Purpose The significance of creativity and innovation within organisations has been shown on several occasions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between transformational leadership and employees’ creativity and innovation. Additionally, this study explored the moderating role of employees’ perceptions of a supportive climate for innovation. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 1,172 employees who were working in various types of industries in Iran, a developing country. Findings The results of this study revealed positive and significant relationships between transformational leadership and employees’ creativity and innovation. Also, the findings indicated employees’ perceptions of a supportive climate for innovation moderated the transformational leadership‐employees’ creativity and transformational leadership‐employees’ innovation relationships. Practical implications Organisations should invest in transformational leadership training and in the selection of leaders with this leadership style if their aim is to foster and enhance employees’ creativity and innovation. They also should invest in organisational climate improvement in order to provide a dynamic platform for being creative and innovative in the workplace. Originality/value This study is one of the first to investigate the following relationships in a developing country, Iran: the associations between transformational leadership and employees’ sense of creativity and innovation and the moderating impact of employees’ perceptions of a supportive climate for innovation.

Innovation climate: A systematic review of the literature and agenda for future research

“…The definition of innovation climate (also termed 'climate for innovation' or 'innovation-supportive climate' by different researchers (e.g., Khalili, 2016;Sarros, Cooper, & Santora, 2008)) adopted in this study is consistent with the definition most commonly utilized by researchers of innovation climate as the shared perceptions at the team (or organizational) level as to the extent to which team (or organizational) processes encourage and enable innovation .…”

“…The most frequently used measure of organizational innovation climate is the 22-item Climate for Innovation Scale developed by Scott and Bruce (1994) to capture employees' perceptions of the organizational innovation climate. Although most research has utilized the 22-item scale (Dhar, 2015;Sarros et al, 2008), some have used shorter versions of the scale (Chan, Liu, & Fellows, 2014;Jaiswal & Dhar, 2015;Khalili, 2016) or integrated items from Scott and Bruce (1994) into their own scale (Kang, Matusik, Kim, & Phillips, 2016;Kang, Solomon, & Choi, 2015). Based on the support for innovation scale developed by Siegel and Kaemmerer (1978), it is made up of two key dimensions, namely support for innovation and resource supply.…”

“…For example, Khalili (2016) found that the influence of employees' perceptions of transformational leadership on their creativity and innovative behaviour was stronger when they held more positive perceptions of the organizational innovation climate. For example, Khalili (2016) found that the influence of employees' perceptions of transformational leadership on their creativity and innovative behaviour was stronger when they held more positive perceptions of the organizational innovation climate.…”

Modelling organisational innovation in UAE: investigating the love triangle involving leadership, organisational culture and innovation

“…A positive relationship between transformational leadership and innovation has been established in the extant literature (Jung et al, 2003;Khalili, 2016;Noruzy et al, 2013;Wilson-Evered et al, 2001). Such a finding is supported by the fact that transformational leaders encourage creativity by stimulating followers to view issues in new perspectives (De Jong and Den Hartog, 2007).…”

Fatores Simbólicos e Instrumentais de Atração de Pessoas em PMES Relações com o Estilo de Liderança do Empreendedor

“…A liderança transformacional influencia a gestão de pessoas de diferentes modos, tais como: alavancando a identificação dos colaboradores com a firma (Behery, 2016), configurando um clima social adequado ao comprometimento, criatividade e inovação (Bai, Li, & Xi, 2012;Chang, 2016;Khalili, & Khalili, 2016;Mittal, & Dhar, 2015;Prasad, & Junni, 2016;Raj, & Srivastava, 2017;Sarros, Cooper, & Santora, 2008;Sattayaraksa, & Boon-itt, 2016), promovendo a ambidestria organizacional (Chang, 2015) (Collins et al, 2004;Collins, 2007).…”