Leadership and Innovation in R&D Teams

This thesis focuses on the members of industrial research and development (R&D) teams and their leaders. The field of individual innovation is fragmented and lacks research that coherently integrates psychological factors that explain why antecedent variables affect individual innovation. Leadership, the major issue in this thesis, has been shown conclusively to influence employee innovation, but research is especially needed on (1) the psychological factors that explain the relationship between leadership and individual innovation, and (2) the contextual factors that affect leaders’ abilities to influence innovation in R&D teams. The aim of this thesis is therefore to identify and empirically test psychological and contextual factors that may explain how and when leaders influence innovation in R&D teams. This thesis consists of four studies. Study I systematically reviews 30 years of research on leaders’ influence on innovation in order to identify the factors that mediate or moderate the relationship. The sample consists of 30 empirical studies in which leadership is the independent variable and innovation is the dependent variable. Study II and Study III are correlational studies based on Study I. In these studies, leadership is conceptualized using leader–member exchange theory (LMX). Individual innovation is measured by innovation outcomes (e.g., new patents, products, scientific publications, and other publications) and by leaders’ ratings of team members’ innovative work behavior. The main findings indicate that individual personal initiative—the propensity to take a proactive stance to one’s work and to be persistent in overcoming challenges and setbacks—predicts individual innovation. A mediating effect is identified in which LMX is associated with innovation through the personal initiative of team members. Study II shows that organizational support—an organization’s active encouragement of innovation through the provision of resources and empowerment—moderates the relationship between LMX and individual personal initiative and thus strengthens the relationship when organizational support is high. Study III shows that creative self-efficacy–the belief in one’s ability to be creative—mediates the relationship between leadership and personal initiative. Moreover, Study III finds that the culturally bound value of conservation is negatively related to individual innovation. Highly conservative individuals value the status quo and are inclined to conform to established ways of doing things. Last, Study IV, which is an interview study, concludes that when R&D project leaders actively facilitate the development of new ideas and provide guidance and expertise, they may stimulate idea generation and increase the possibility of successfully completing innovation projects. Project leaders who limit team members’ work autonomy and neglect basic project management hinder the generation and implementation of innovative ideas. The thesis concludes that leaders in R&D influence the innovativeness of their teams and employees. Various contextual and psychological factors at the individual, team, and organizational levels may facilitate or hinder the efforts of leaders to influence innovation outcomes

How Do Bank Officers Make Lending Decisions? An Exploration of Thinking Styles, Cognitive Bias and Lending Technologies

The overall aim of this thesis was to examine how loan officers’ think and act when making assessments of loan proposals from companies. The importance of valid loan assessments can be understood through the substantial economic crises that the global economy has suffered as well as the severe problems invalid lending decisions brings for both banks and clients. In Study I we conducted a review of the research on lending decision making concerning company credits between 2000 and 2010 to create a basis for subsequent research could benefit from. The results from the review tell us that lending technology influence the lending decisions, that loan officers are susceptible to cognitive biases when assessing customers and that intuitive reasoning seems to be part of lending decision making. We discussed the findings on the basis of earlier research and proposed three conclusions. In study II we examined how loan officers make decisions about loan proposals through 88 critical incident interviews conducted in the four biggest banks in Sweden. The results showed that loan officer’s used deliberate reasoning to a higher extent than intuitive reasoning when making lending decisions. Furthermore, when reporting which kind of problems the loan officers experienced, typical problems were the assessment of soft information, e.g., relationship with client. We discussed the findings on the basis of relevant decision making literature and emphasize the potential problems that could arise in lending decision making. Study III investigated the occurrence of different thinking styles among loan officers and the antecedents of lending technology. The results showed that loan officers reported a higher degree of analytic thinking than an experiential thinking style. Lending technology was shown to be a result of organizational differences, e.g., bank affiliation rather than of individual differences, e.g., thinking styles or lending experience. In Study IV, a web-based experiment was conducted to investigate the validity of different information processes in lending decision-making. The participants were induced with either an intuitive or analytic way of processing information and were then tested on their susceptibility to the sunk-cost effect. Results showed that loan officers are victims of the sunk-cost effect, but the effect is not depending on differences in intuitive and analytic information processing. In all, these studies suggest that both organizational and personal factors affects lending decision making, that loan officers use predominately analytic rather than intuitive information processing when making decisions and that loan officers are victims of the sunk cost-effect

Managing Creativity in Academic Research: How Could Creative Action and Management be Reconciled in Research?

This  article  discusses  how  management  could  be  used  in  promoting  creativity  in academic research. First, research management is introduced with the observation that  management  often  creates  tension  in  academic  research.  Second,  a  comprehensive research management model is presented as a tool for analysis. Third, studies of creative and innovative working groups are applied to academic research management. Finally, a conclusion is drawn with six implications for the improvement of creativity supported by research management

Relationsinriktat Ledarskap för Innovationsutveckling Mätinstrumentet Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)

Den här rapporten redovisar huvudresultaten av forskningsprojektet ”Chefskap för Sverige: En fråga om relationer och ansvarstagande” och utprövningen av ett ledarskapsinstrument, för mätning av det innovationsfrämjande ledarskapet. Instrumentet är ett validerat frågeformulär med skattningsskalor baserat på ledar-medarbetar utbytesteori (Leader-Member Exchange, LMX). Forskningsprojektet genomfördes med stöd av Vinnova under åren 2008- 2013 av Stefan Tengblad, professor i företagekonomi) och projektledare, Sven Hemlin, professor i psykologi, biträdande projektledare och Leif Denti, fil.lic. i psykologi, doktorand i projektet. Rapporten innehåller följande avsnitt: I del ett presenteras projektets bakgrund och syfte, två skilda synsätt på ledarskap i forskningen, projektets delstudier och huvudresultat, slutsatser av projektet samt Instrument, skalor för ledarskap med relationsperspektiv (LMX och transformativt ledarskap). Därefter, i del 2, redovisar vi LMX-instrumentet som det använts i våra empiriska studier och skilda utfallsmått som det relaterats till (t ex innovation), de mätproblem vi påträffat, projektets resultat och slutsatser av ledarskapsmätningar med LMX-instrumentet