Understanding employee innovative behavior: Integrating the social network and leader–member exchange perspectives

Abstract

Summary By integrating social network theory and leader–member exchange (LMX) theory, we explore the effects of three types of social relationships on employee innovative behavior: weak ties outside the group, LMX, and strong ties within the group. The results from a sample in a high‐tech firm showed that LMX fully mediated the positive relationship between out‐group weak ties and innovative behavior. Furthermore, within‐group strong ties negatively moderated the second stage of this indirect relationship, such that LMX was positively and significantly related to innovative behavior only when the number of within‐group strong ties was low. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Understanding Employee Innovative Behavior and Thriving at Work: A Chinese Perspective

“…In summary, by delineating and demonstrating complex and multilevel relationships, we extended previous research on social cognitive theory and the multilevel process leading to innovation (e.g., (Carmeli and Spreitzer 2009;Wang et al 2015)). Furthermore, our study adds to the literature on positive organizational scholarship and behavior movements.…”

“…Therefore, drawing on the study by Walumbwa et al (2018), we expected that organizational support for innovation would play a critical role between employees' experience of thriving at work and the display of innovative behavior. In addition, social relations are very important as an input of innovative ideas and in their implementation (Wang et al 2015). Therefore, in the present research, we also postulated the moderating role of external work contacts.…”

“…Infrequent external work contacts are a source of non-redundant information and facilitate several processes that help innovative work behavior, including opportunities for exploration, sources of ideas, and support to implement innovations (Cole et al 2002;De Jong and Den Hartog 2010;Wang et al 2015). To contribute to the understanding of the exchange dynamics of external work contacts, we focused on individuals' experience of thriving and explored how such external relationships impact on innovative behavior.…”

“…Therefore, it is crucial to examine the Chinese organizational culture and identify favorable conditions to increase innovation. Finally, we considered external social relations, as they are sources for the generation and promotion of ideas Wang et al 2015). In order to understand the social elements that provide appropriate guidance for organizational practice, we aimed to examine whether contextual and social factors are important for the appropriate application of thriving to stimulate innovative behavior.…”

Predicting innovative performance through proactive personality: Examining its criterion validity and incremental validity over the five‐factor model

“…Consequently, the author has combined and used these behavioral dimensions as a single additive scale of innovative behavior. The same approach has also been followed in further research with this scale (e.g., Aryee, Walumbwa, Zhou, & Hartnell, ; De Jong & Hartog, ; Wang, Fang, Qureshi, & Janssen, ). In the current sample, the magnitude of the respective intercorrelations was particularly strong as well, more specifically 0.76 between idea generation and idea implementation, 0.72 between idea generation and idea promotion and 0.82 between idea promotion and idea implementation.…”