Enhancing the employee's innovative behaviour: A social network perspective

The thesis is composed of three, highly interrelated studies. In the first paper, we explore the motivational antecedents of advantageous network positions. Specifically, we propose a counterpoised relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from one, and in-degree centrality in advice networks on the other hand. We show that intrinsic motivation is positively related to in-degree centrality, whereas the impact of extrinsic motivation on in-degree centrality is negative. Furthermore, we suggest that such an outcome can be expected also when we consider the motivational orientation of the ego’s advice providers. With this, we provide new knowledge about the motivational micro-foundations of social networks (Tasselli et al., 2015). In the second study, we go a step further to show that in-degree centrality mediates the relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative behaviour. These findings contribute to the literatures on motivation and creativity, which have for long focused solely on psychological mechanisms to explain the well-established relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative behaviour (e.g. Grant and Berry, 2011). Finally, in the third paper, we focus on the conditions under which brokerage is related to innovative behaviour. By showing that network diversity moderates this relationship, we contribute to the ongoing debate about the contextual conditions that enable or impede brokers to enhance their innovative behaviour (e.g. Tortoriello and Krackhardt, 2010). The three papers rely on the same dataset, which was collected in a multinational company, located in the Northern Italian region of Lombardy. All the employees (N = 134) were invited to participate in our online survey, which was distributed to them via e-mail. The company’s core business is providing consulting services and solutions regarding efficient consumption and use of energy. The clients’ portfolio is composed of large energy consumers such as manufacturing companies, large corporations as well as public institutions. To satisfy the differing needs of its customers, and at the same time to gain competitive advantage, the company is devoted to nurturing a highly innovative corporate climate. During our preliminary interviews with the director of Human Resources Department, we were informed that the company is highly committed in fostering an environment, where employees are encouraged and rewarded for their innovative beahviour. The individual innovative behaviour is indeed, a substantial part of the overall employees’ performance appraisal system. Moreover, the organizational chart of the company shows that the formal structure is set horizontally, which is expected to foster an increased collaboration and interaction among organizational members (Tichy et al., 1979). The preliminary interviews with the HRM further suggested that the company cultivates an informal corporate culture and collaborative leaderships style, where employees are free to choose their collaborators. Taking into consideration the factual conditions, I believe that the company represents an appropriate empirical setting for addressing the research questions that I would try to address in this thesis.