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re aimed more directly at stimulating employees’ idea generation and/or application efforts (e.g. providing resources).
4.1 Innovative role modelling
Most interviewees suggested that it is beneficial if they themselves are examples of innovative behaviour. For instance, interviewees from the front-runners group stated: “I am always looking for ways to do things better and improve results. It stimulates some of my employees to do the same.” Or: “Some of my employees tend to behave like I do, particularly the younger ones.”
Empirical evidence supports such a link between innovative role-modelling and idea generation. Jaussi and Dionne (2003) hypothesized that leaders who act creatively make themselves available for creative emulation, which in turn produces more creativity in followers. Acting as a model for creativity was expected to increase the chance that followers would practice idea generation themselves. In an experiment using student participants, Jaussi and Dionne did indeed find a positive and direct impact of role-modelling on creativity. Shalley and Perry-Smith (2001) found that individuals who were provided with a creative work model were able to learn what was considered creative from this model and, in turn, exhibited more creative behaviour.
Evidence of the link between role-modelling and application behaviour is scarce.
Tierney et al. (1999) found that direct assessments of leaders’ creative skills correlated positively (in the 1930s) with output-based measures of individual innovation, such as invention disclosures. Sundbo (1996) performed case studies in Danish service firms and concluded that working with a manager of the “entrepreneurial type” strengthened the entrepreneurial activities of employees. Extraordinary levels of implementation-oriented innovative activity were found when such a leader was present. Therefore, both the interviews and literature suggest that role modelling may stimulate both idea generation and application behaviour.
4.2 Intellectual stimulation
Some of our respondents (mostly from the front-runners group) asserted that stimulating employees to generate ideas is quite simple: just tempt or even entice them
o do so. For example, one respondent stated:
To solve problems we make a “criminal tour”. I ask my employees to think of something that is not ethical or strictly prohibited by law, but could actually serve as a solution. It is a nice way to find new methods we otherwise would never have thought of.
Such examples seem related to what theorists call intellectual stimulation: increasing employees’ awareness of problems and stimulating them to rethink old ways of doing things (Bass, 1985; Den Hartog, 1997). Intellectual stimulation may create opportunities for employees to voice ideas that may otherwise be overlooked and is, therefore,believed to trigger idea generation in particular. As most studies treat intellectual stimulation as part of the broader-defined construct of transformational leadership,research efforts have yet to focus explicitly on the connection between intellectual stimulation and innovative behaviours. Empirical work on related topics does suggest support for this link. In a study in R&D firms, Scott and Bruce (1994) empirically demonstrated that when managers expect their employees to be innovative, employees tend to perceive their leader as encouraging and facilitating their innovative efforts and demonstrate more innovati