Research On Relationship Model Of Transformational Leadership, Organizational Climate For Innovativeness And Innovative Performance

In the 21st century, the inside and outside business environment accelerate to change because of more openness of global market and more fierce competition among firms. Under these contexts, firms have to regard innovation and its management as measures of survival and success (Isaksen & Lauer, 2002). Some sayings, like"organizational ability to innovate is determinant for survival and success","innovate or die"are consensus for most managers. However, the issues that why innovation emerges and how to improve it still challenge academy and management practice. But for today's firms constituted by people, employees have been the main participants in innovation and the first resources for organizational innovation. Therefore, the development of ability to innovate and adapt are determined to great content by triggering and encouragement of employees'creativity. The issues of innovation transformed into how to inspire and support employees'or teams'creativity, and how to understand the inside conditions and management envrionment conducive to innovative behaviors. That is to say, the key problem for firm is how to create the organizational climate for innovativeness (OCI).The purposes of this dissertation include: how to trigger employees'innovative enthusiasm and behaviors via create positive OCI, the latter is influenced by leadership. According to four key problems, such as definition, structure, cognitive discrepancy and mediating effects of OCI, the following research were arranged, including:Ⅰ. research of basic concept of OCI;Ⅱ. research ofthe structure and cognitive discrepancy of OCI;Ⅲ. research of perception of OCI based on situational differences;Ⅳ. research of mediating effects mechanism of OCI. Through theoretical discussion and empirical analysis with 718 Chinese samples, the following conclusions were drawn:(1) The key compositons of definition were common in different opinions of nature and methods of OCI, and the largest discrepancy were presented via engendering mode and expression mode. Through review and analysis onto lots of literature, some common compositions were summed up, including environmental features within organization, multi-factors and being perceived by individuals. The ultimate discrepancy between two opinions of nature regarding OCI embodied on engendering pattern and expression pattern of OCI. The theoretical research model under differenct opinions of nature also had differences. The subjective opinions of OCI acknowledged that OCI is different within the same firms, and the objective opinions hypothesized in advance that the OCI is same within the same firms. However the two opions did not eliminate the influences of individuanls'differences. Therefore the theoretical divarication get the connection each other in practice. Through analyzing more than 60 literatures on OCI, we found that seven kinds of dimensionality were accepted including personnal relationship, job design, idea support, sufficient resources, organizational atmosphere, freedom, knowledge sharing.(2) The modified version of Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ) was reliable and applicable in China. Through relative literature and deep interview of enterprises, the SOQ was modified in China. After passing the filtering procedures of general analysis, CITC analysis, item-item correlation and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), OCI was measured via 41 items. The respective EFA and CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) procedures utilizing one half of formal samples indicated that first-order-nine-dimensionality structure of OCI had the best fitness, in contrast to other structural models.(3) Employees'perception on OCI was influenced by differences in demographic factors and organizational characteristics. Using MANOVA procedures, we found first-order-nine-dimensionality structure of OCI was stable among parts of samples with the following features: nation-owned, technical company, with more than 500 employees, bachelor degree, with 3∽5 years or over 10 years tenure, less than 25 years old. Parts of subjectives perceived positively on OCI with the features including: female, bachelor degree, more than 45 years old, over 5 years tenure and middle or top management. Emploees perceived actively on OCI from the enterprises with the features including: technical company, 3∽5 years developing time, nation-owned or foreign, chemistry or biology engineering industries.(4) Employees'perception on OCI was the most affirmatively in the firms with high level innovative performance, or under the leadership characterized by high transformational and transactional behaviors. The empirical research showed that there is significant difference of perception on OCI among firms with different innovative performance levels. Employees from"high innovation"group more positively perceived on OCI than others from"low innovation"group. The difference of mean located range from 0.57 to 0.69 except of the"conflict"dimension. Therefore we approved that SOQ could differentiate enterprises with different innovative achievements. Through sorting leadership styles labelled by"high transformation and high transaction","high transformation and low transaction","low transformation and low transaction", and general leadership, the framework of four-pane model of leadership and innovative cliamte was erected. The empirical research indicated that there is significant differences of perception on OCI under different leadership styles. Employees under the"high transformational and high transactional"leadership perceived more positively than other three types, and employees under the"low transformational and low transactional"had the weakest perception on OCI.(5) OCI partially mediated or absolutely mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative behaviors or innovative outputs. Based on t three relationship models, the empirical analysis indicated that regression coefficients between any two varivables are significant at 0.01 or 0.001 level (except for"freedom","conflict"and"debate). Three premisses were satisfied according to judgement rules put forward by Baron & Kenny (1986). Through analyzing the basic model and alternative models of mediating effects of OCI, we found the mixed mediating effects model had the best fitness. By analyzing the absolute results, OCI partially mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative behaviors, and completely meidated the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative outputs.The main contributions of the dissertation include:(1) Distiguishing the various definitions and research methods of OCI, and the connection and discrepancy teween differnat opinions of OCI nature through systematic literature analysis and empirical study. (2) The validity and reliability of"Situational Outlook Questionnaire"(SOQ) was firstly modified and examined in China. (3) Putting forward creatively four-pance model regarding transformational and transactional leadership, and its relationship with OCI, and promote the empirical study on interactive effects of transformational and transactional leadership. (4) Empirically examinning the influencing relationship between transformational leadership and employees'innovative behaviors and outputs based on the mediating effects of OCI.