Exploratory research into the effect of the perceived employee-organisation relationship on role innovation

This research explored the relationship between role innovation and the perceived employee-organisational relationship. Role innovation is an inclusive perspective of individual innovation in the workplace. The design incorporated an qualitative preliminary phase and a quantitative survey format as suited to the exploratory nature of the research. The exploratory component elicited detailed information from eight R&D professionals. It focused on the construct of role innovation so as to ensure that the constructs and assessment methods were relevant and meaningful for the sample population. The sample of the subsequent survey research consisted of mid level (N = 51) employees from the administration, production and research and development departments of an electrical manufacturing firm in the Western Cape, South Africa. In the questionnaire role innovation was measured using Janssen's (2000) nine item scale of role innovation, which incorporates separate sub-scales for idea generation, idea promotion and idea realisation. The perceived employee-organisation relationship (PEOR) was assessed according to six factors; three forms of organisational commitment affective, continuance and normative as measured by Meyer, Allen and Smith's (1993) item scale, value congruence (measured using McDonald and Gantz's (1992) comparative values scale), perceived supervisory support (measured using the scale developed by Oldham and Cummins (1996) and perceived organisational support (measured using the Perceived Organisational Support Scale as developed by Eisenburger (2001)). The constructs of intrinsic motivation was incorporated as a moderating factor given the strong evidence of its influence on individual innovation. This was assessed using the Intrinsic/Extrisic Motivation Scale as developed by Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby and Herron (1996). Few significant relationships were found, however those indicated through correlation proved statistically robust through ANOVA, regression analysis and the Kruder-Wallis test for non- parametric means. The role innovation instrument proved reliable for the South African sample, however the sub-scales of idea promotion and idea realisation were combined following strategic factor analysis. The most important finding was a negative relationship between normative commitment and role innovation (idea generation). A positive relationship was also found between intrinsic motivation and role innovation (idea generation and idea promotion and realisation). Subsequent discussion focused on the important of contextual factors as external variables moderating the importance of the PEOR factors in predicting role innovation. The primary limitations of this research are the lack of causal direction and the sample size, which limited the sophistication of the statistical analysis. The findings indicate promise for future innovation research linking affective variables with individual actions.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Organisational Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Tighe, Sharon

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bagraim, Jeffrey

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6991

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6991