Why do you need me? leadership and its linkages to innovation in Indian organizations

Abstract

The present study presents a qualitative study of the leadership that is essential for driving innovation in organisations. Based on a grounded-theoretic investigation of interviews conducted with scientists working in 11 Indian R&D organisations, the study explores the leader behaviours that affect innovation processes at workplace. The results demonstrate that the critical leader behaviours that impact innovation are task-oriented behaviour, relation-oriented behaviour, team-building behaviour, empowering behaviour and leading by example behaviour. The study identi es three process variables through which innovation is brought about in organisations. These are organisations’ psychological capital, fairness at workplace and employees’ work engagement. Impact of leadership on these process factors is discussed.