Transformational Leadership and Innovative Work Behavior of Employees

Organizations need to innovate to stay relevant, for example, through the innovative work behavior of employees. Previous studies highlighted how different innovative phases may require other leadership behavior. In the present study, the authors aim to discover which type of transformational leadership behaviour best encourages employees in which innovative phase, both from the perspective of the manager and the employee. They conducted interviews with 42 leaders and 43 followers within four innovative companies in the e-tailing sector. They use thematic analysis and quantisization of the data. The results show that not every subcomponent of transformational leadership has the same influence on each phase of innovative work behavior, nor with the same magnitude. The most prevalent relationship is between intellectual stimulation and idea generation. They report specific actions by leaders that promote innovative work behavior in followers.