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Authentic Leadership and Employees' Innovative Behaviour: A Multilevel Investigation in Three Countries.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 10 30; 16(21)IJ

Abstract

The innovativeness of individual employees is a vital source of competitive advantage of firms, contributing to societal development. Therefore, the aim of this multilevel study was to examine how entrepreneurial firm owners' authentic leadership relates to their employees' innovative behaviour. Our conceptual model postulates that the relationship between business owners' authentic leadership (as perceived by their employees) and their employees' innovative behaviour is mediated by employees' personal initiative and their work engagement. Hypotheses derived from this model were tested on data collected from 711 employees working in 85 small firms from three European countries: the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. The results of the multilevel modelling confirmed our model, showing that when business owners are perceived as more authentic leaders, their employees show higher personal initiative and are more engaged at work and, in turn, identify more innovative solutions to be implemented in the organization. A cross-national difference was observed: employees from Spain (in comparison to Dutch and Polish employees) reported engaging less frequently in innovative behaviour. These research findings suggest that the innovative behaviour of employees can be boosted through leadership training, improving the quality of relationships between leaders and subordinates, and strengthening employees' personal initiative and work engagement.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Laguna M
Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland. laguna@kul.pl.
Walachowska K
Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland. walachowska.karolina@gmail.com.
Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn MJ
Department of Work and Organisational Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. gorgievski@essb.eur.nl.
Moriano JA
Department of Social and Organisational Psychology, The National Distance Education University (UNED), 28040 Madrid, Spain. jamoriano@psi.uned.es.

MeSH

AdultCross-Cultural ComparisonEntrepreneurshipEuropeFemaleHumansInventionsLeadershipMaleMiddle AgedNegotiatingWork Engagement

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

31671565

Citation

Laguna, Mariola, et al. "Authentic Leadership and Employees' Innovative Behaviour: a Multilevel Investigation in Three Countries." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 16, no. 21, 2019.
Laguna M, Walachowska K, Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn MJ, et al. Authentic Leadership and Employees' Innovative Behaviour: A Multilevel Investigation in Three Countries. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(21).
Laguna, M., Walachowska, K., Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn, M. J., & Moriano, J. A. (2019). Authentic Leadership and Employees' Innovative Behaviour: A Multilevel Investigation in Three Countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(21). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214201
Laguna M, et al. Authentic Leadership and Employees' Innovative Behaviour: a Multilevel Investigation in Three Countries. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 10 30;16(21) PubMed PMID: 31671565.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Authentic Leadership and Employees' Innovative Behaviour: A Multilevel Investigation in Three Countries. AU - Laguna,Mariola, AU - Walachowska,Karolina, AU - Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn,Marjan J, AU - Moriano,Juan A, Y1 - 2019/10/30/ PY - 2019/09/21/received PY - 2019/10/24/revised PY - 2019/10/28/accepted PY - 2019/11/2/entrez PY - 2019/11/2/pubmed PY - 2020/3/17/medline KW - authentic leadership KW - business owners KW - entrepreneurship KW - innovation KW - innovative behaviour KW - leadership KW - multilevel analysis KW - personal initiative KW - work engagement JF - International journal of environmental research and public health JO - Int J Environ Res Public Health VL - 16 IS - 21 N2 - The innovativeness of individual employees is a vital source of competitive advantage of firms, contributing to societal development. Therefore, the aim of this multilevel study was to examine how entrepreneurial firm owners' authentic leadership relates to their employees' innovative behaviour. Our conceptual model postulates that the relationship between business owners' authentic leadership (as perceived by their employees) and their employees' innovative behaviour is mediated by employees' personal initiative and their work engagement. Hypotheses derived from this model were tested on data collected from 711 employees working in 85 small firms from three European countries: the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. The results of the multilevel modelling confirmed our model, showing that when business owners are perceived as more authentic leaders, their employees show higher personal initiative and are more engaged at work and, in turn, identify more innovative solutions to be implemented in the organization. A cross-national difference was observed: employees from Spain (in comparison to Dutch and Polish employees) reported engaging less frequently in innovative behaviour. These research findings suggest that the innovative behaviour of employees can be boosted through leadership training, improving the quality of relationships between leaders and subordinates, and strengthening employees' personal initiative and work engagement. SN - 1660-4601 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/31671565/Authentic_Leadership_and_Employees'_Innovative_Behaviour:_A_Multilevel_Investigation_in_Three_Countries_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -