FATTORI ANTECEDENTI DEL COMPORTAMENTO INNOVATIVO AL LAVORO

In the studies of innovation a number of individual and contextual variables that contribute to innovative behaviour have been identified (Anderson et al., 2004). However, there are some aspects regarding the relation among the antecedents and innovative work behaviour (IWB) that deserve more attention. One of these is the study of the relation between the antecedents of innovation and innovative work behaviour respect to its different phases. A second important aspect is the study of the psychological processes through which dispositional and organizational antecedents influence the IWB. The purpose of this research is to contribute to an empirical understanding of the relationship among dispositional and contextual characteristics on Work motivation and Innovative behaviour, in the perspective of Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985). Specifically, two main objectives leaded the entire project of this thesis: I. The study of the relation on the antecedents of innovation on the three phases of IWB. In fact, in the studies of innovation a number of contextual and individual antecedent of the innovative behaviour have been identified. However, few studies have studied how the influence of these antecedents change depending on the phase of IWB considered. In fact, IWB is a complex process composed of three tasks, generation, promotion and realization of the ideas, and each phase is characterized by specific characteristics. II. The study of the role of motivation in the relationship among individual and organizational antecedents on IWB, in the perspective of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). A second aspect to consider is the study of psychological processes by which individual and organizational antecedents influence IWB. One purpose of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between motivation to work, resistance to change, support from supervisor and IWB in perspective of SDT. These two main objectives have been analyzed by two studies: In the first study, the influence of a number of positive and negative antecedents of innovation were analyzed respect to the three different phases of IWB. The independent variable were: resistance to change, conflict in relationships, pressure on goal, perceived organizational support, orientation towards innovation and communication quality. The results, based on a sample of 117 employees of a hospital located in Central Italy, partially confirmed that the influence of the antecedents on IWB depends on the phase of IWB considered and they shown that individual and contextual variables interact to predict the innovative behaviour. In the second study, the main research object was the study of work motivation as mediator in relationship between antecedents and the three phases of IWB, in perspective of SDT. The SDT has been chosen as theory of reference because it makes be possible to consider different levels of motivation. Six models, resulting from the combination of the two levels of Motivation and the three levels of IWB were proposed and tested in a population of 202 employees in two private companies located in Central Italy. The results showed that both autonomous and controlled motivation have an important mediation role in the relationship between the antecedents and IWB. Moreover, the results showed differences between Autonomous and Controlled motivation in the way they influence IWB. Specifically, Autonomous motivation was the most influential factor on IWB and had his greater influence on the Idea generation phase, on the contrary, the controlled motivation exerted its major influence on the Idea promotion and Idea realization phases. Regarding the other variables, resistance to change and task autonomy had their greater influence on Idea generation, on the contrary, the perception of organizational support exerts its influence on IWB mainly by the mediation of work motivation, specially of autonomous motivation. In general, the results underline the importance of distinguishing the different phases of IWB and the usefulness of applying SDT perspective in the research on innovation. Moreover, this study also confirmed the importance of studying resistance to change as a dispositional and multifactorial construct. In fact, the results showed that the different factors of the Dispositional Resistance to change construct exert different types of influence on IWB. Particularly, Routing Seeking influences IWB by the mediation of Autonomous motivation, Cognitive Rigidity influences directly IWB, and Emotional Reaction moderates the relation between Work motivation and IWB.