Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-2021

Abstract

Managers play a pivotal role in the innovation process; yet, the mechanisms through which managers enhance or undermine innovation are not well understood. Drawing upon self-concordance theory, we argue that managers can augment employees' self-concordance—defined as the congruence of goals and actions with inner values and preferences—through transformational behavior and thereby contribute to innovation. However, transformational behavior is closely coupled to another form of influence, namely, process management, the attempt to directly manage innovation-related activities. This form of managerial influence reduces employees' self-concordance and thereby undermines innovation. We test our conceptual model in a sample of 188 innovation projects using a contextualized method that asked employees to assess their self-concordance and their managers' behavior during each project. Managers evaluated for each project the innovativeness of the outcome. Multilevel path-analysis provided support for our hypotheses. We discuss future research implications to disentangle innovation-facilitating and innovation-undermining facets of managerial influence.

Keywords

Innovation, managers, managerial influence

Discipline

Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory | Technology and Innovation

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Applied Psychology

Volume

71

Issue

2

First Page

359

Last Page

379

ISSN

0269-994X

Identifier

10.1111/apps.12324

Publisher

Wiley

Copyright Owner and License

Authors-CC-BY

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12324

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