Research On The Relationship Between R & D Personnel Autonomy And Innovation Performance

Today technology develop rapidly and globally competitive environment become increasingly fierce. Innovation has become a main source to enhance competitive advantage. It’s also an important driving reforce for enterprise survival and development. R & D staff is the core of innovation talent. Innovative performance is essential for R & D personnel. How to improve innovation performance of R & D personnel is an important issue for enterprises. Innovation is an autonomous behavior. It need to stimulate the individual’s own intrinsic motivation to perform one’s innovation potential and behavior autonomy can really inspire one’s intrinsic motivation. Work autonomy is recognized as a key factor that restraining innovation. The work of R & D personnel is unstructured and demanding on technology, so they need more autonomy. However, work autonomy, has different aspects. Not all aspects play the same role in promoting innovation performance, and their relationship will be affected by other factors. Task interdependence, the nature of work, is an important factor that affecting the relationship between work autonomy and innovation performance.Based on 238 samples of data, this study divided the work autonomy into three dimensions:work method autonomy, work scheduling autonomy, and work criteria autonomy. Innovation performance was also divided into three dimensions:innovation intention, innovation action, and innovation achievement. Then the study explored the effects of different work autonomy on different dimensions of innovation performance of R&D personnel and the moderating-effect of task interdependence. Through theoretical analysis and empirical the results showed that:(1) Work method autonomy and work scheduling autonomy all have positive effects on innovation intention, innovation action, and innovation achievement. (2)Work criteria autonomy has a negative impact on innovation intention, innovation action, and innovation achievement. (3)The effects of work method autonomy and work scheduling autonomy on innovation performance are weaker when the task interdependence is high. Moderating Effects of task interdependence between the standard autonomy and innovation performance has not been confirmed. The results of the study have some revelations for enterprise to improve R&D personnel’s innovative performance:Firstly, managers should improve work method autonomy of R&D personnel and advocate R & D personnel to diversify working methods and promote innovative method. Secondly, managers should improve the freedom of scheduling their work and reduce fixed rigid working arrangements, so that employees can adjust their work according to their status, work priorities and changes. Thirdly, R&D personnel should have a clear understand of the organizational and personal goals. A reasonable work standards and reward system must be developed. Fourth, the degree of work autonomy should be controlled according to the nature of work. When the task interdependence is low, managers should encourage mutual cooperation and interaction among employees when task interdependence is high. Fifth, managers should combine those practices with other management practices to encourage employees to promote their innovative ideas and transformed them into practical use.