The Influence of Leadership Behavior on Innovative Work Behavior : The Case of a Pharmaceutical Company in Germany

Innovation is a crucial part of companies getting a competitive advantage. Most studies of leadership behaviors fostering innovative work behavior have explored how organizations can become more innovative by encouraging their employees to generate new ideas in a knowledge-intensive environment. By showing specific leadership behaviors leaders can improve idea generation and idea realization. Next to that, they can adopt or delegate innovator roles, that help pushing an idea through the different phases of the innovation process. The purpose of this paper is to find appropriate leadership behaviors that enhance the innovative work behavior of employees in a different context, namely a manufacturing environment. This study provides a new view on leadership behaviors fostering innovative work behavior within the manufacturing context. Until now studies focused mainly on knowledge-intensive environments. The found behaviors offer a chance to push innovative ideas through the innovation cycle.