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

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

Social climate as a mediator between leadership behavior and employee well-being in a cross-cultural perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct effects of empowering and employee-centered leadership on well-being, and the indirect or mediating role of social organizational climate between leadership behavior and well-being in a cross-cultural perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were distributed in two furniture retail stores in Sweden and two stores in China belonging to the same company. The final sample consisted of 483 participants from the Chinese and 254 participants from the Swedish stores. Findings – The results of the structural equation modeling showed that there was no direct effect between leadership behavior (employee-centered leadership and empowering leadership) and well-being in either the Swedish or the Chinese sample. Further, the findings of the study indicate that social climate mediates the relationship between leadership behavior and employee well-being, but this seems to be culturally contingent. The mediating effect is prevalent in a culture that has been considered as having a collective orientation and where the power distance is high. Research limitations/implications – Despite some methodological limitations such as the cross-sectional design and problems with acquiescence in responses, the results indicate the complexity of the role of culture in organizational behavior. Practical implications – Managers working in increasingly globalized contexts need to take into consideration that some organizational behaviors gradually become more universal, whereas others remain culturally contingent. Originality/value – The paper illustrates the complex relationship between leadership behavior, social climate, and employee well-being in the same corporate culture, but in different cultural settings

Social climate and job control as mediators between leadership and learning from a cross-cultural perspective

The purpose of this article is to examine the direct effects of empowering leadership on learning and the indirect or mediating role of social climate and job control from a cross-cultural perspective. Questionnaires were distributed to two furniture retail stores in Sweden and two stores in China belonging to the same company. The final sample consisted of 483 participants from the Chinese and 254 participants from the Swedish stores. The results of the structural equation modeling showed that there was a direct relationship between empowering leadership and learning (both in the Chinese and the Swedish sample). The study also showed that social climate had a mediating effect of empowering leadership and learning (both in the Chinese and the Swedish sample). In addition, the result indicated that job control had a mediating effect (Swedish sample). The model explained 38% of the variance in learning among the Chinese sample and 62% in the Swedish. This indicates that the tested factors are highly relevant in the context of learning. Despite some methodological limitations such as the cross-sectional design and problems with acquiescence in responses, the results indicate the complexity of the role of culture in organizational behavior. Managers working in increasingly globalized contexts need to take into consideration that some organizational behaviors gradually become more universal, whereas others remain culturally contingent. This article illustrates the complex relationship between leadership behavior, social climate, job control, and learning in the same corporate culture but in different cultural settings

Sweden's largest Facebook study

The emergence of the Internet has made it easier for people to socially interact than ever before. Today, the most popular channel is Facebook with over 845 million users world wide. In Sweden, the number of users amount to approximately half of the population. We had two aims with this study. First, we investigate which areas of Facebook usage that Swedish Facebook users consider more important vis-a-vis less important. We were also interested in how users convey their persona through their status updates, including what they status update about, and the underlying reasons for updating one’s status. Second, we investigate what psychological effects Facebook may induce. More specifically, we look at the psychological constructs self-esteem and well-being in relation to Facebook usage. We surveyed 1011 Swedish Facebook users with our questionnaires, measuring respondents’ Facebook usage patterns, well-being and self-esteem. Our analyses revealed that on average Swedish women spend 81 minutes per day on Facebook, whereas Swedish men are logged on to the site about 64 minutes per day. Generally, Facebook is used for social network maintenance, such as maintaining contact with people one doesn’t meet so often. However, Facebook is seldom used for meeting new people. Another finding is that Facebook users generally tend to update their status about positive events, major events and when they are feeling well, rather than negative events and when they are feeling bad. Women seem to be more engaged and active on Facebook than men, agreeing that a vast number of uses is significantly more important. Furthermore, women tend to write more about their thoughts and feelings, whereas twice as many men state that they provoke others on Facebook. Pertaining to Facebook’s psychological effects, the amount of time spent on Facebook had no relationship with self-esteem when controlling for gender, age, education and income. $is result runs counter to previous findings. However, women who spend more time on Facebook report feeling less happy and feel less content with their lives. For men, this relationship was not evident.$e study teaches that Facebook is used as a tool for affiliating with friends and family, as well as a personal showcase, where users show their positive sides. Herein lies also a danger. When Facebook users compare their own lives with others’ seemingly more successful careers and happy relationships, they may feel that their own lives are less successful in comparison

Supporting first-line managers in implementing oral care guidelines in nursing homes

This study investigated first-line managers’ experience of and responses to a concise leadership intervention to facilitate the implementation of oral care clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in nursing homes. Leadership is known to be an important element in knowledge implementation but little is known as to what supports managers to facilitate the process. By means of a process evaluation with mixed methods, the context and a three-month leadership program was explored, including activities during and in relation to the program, and the effects in terms of oral care CPG implementation plans. While the managers appreciated the intervention and considered improved oral care to be a priority, their implementation plans mainly focused the dissemination of an oral care checklist. The findings suggest that extended implementation interventions engaging both managers and clinical staff are needed, and that a concise intervention does not facilitate first-line managers to adopt behaviors known to facilitate knowledge implementation