The Role of Leadership in Innovation

OVERVIEW:Organizational and corporate culture clearly play a role in innovation effectiveness, but little work has been done to explore the exact nature of that relationship. To address that gap, the IRI Research-on-Research working group on Innovation Culture analyzed data from the Center for Creative Leadership's KEYS to Creativity and Innovation survey. Key conclusions include that while challenging work is important in all organizations, the importance of organizational encouragement and work group support differs by organizational factors. The impact of organizational encouragement is most pronounced for organizations with low-control, high-support, or high–risk-aversion cultures. Work group support, while important across all segments studied, has less effect than challenging work or organizational encouragement. This information can be used by managers to drive more effective innovation in the context of an organization's particular cultural characteristics.