Individual-Level Factors are Significantly More Predictive of Employee Innovativeness Than Job-Specific or Organization-Level Factors: Results From a Quantitative Study of Health Professionals

Why should we strive to let them thrive? Exploring the links between homecare professionals thriving at work, employee ambidexterity, and innovative behavior

BACKGROUND

The concept of thriving at work (TAW) has received increased interest within health services research in recent years. TAW embraces employees' experience of being energized and feeling alive when employed in an organization. However, previous research has been limited mainly to the investigation of factors that promote TAW. Consequently, there is a lack of research linking TAW to potential outcomes. Based on this knowledge gap, this study aimed to examine links between TAW and two potential outcomes: employees' individual innovative behavior (IIB) and employee ambidexterity (EA). Thus, the study contributes to a relatively neglected area, homecare, within the domain of health services research.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, N = 258 Norwegian homecare professionals in nine municipalities were selected through convenience sampling. The conceptual model's results were analyzed using partial least-squares structural equation modeling with SmartPLS 3 software. The study tested both direct and indirect relationships. Indirect relationships were achieved through bootstrap.

RESULTS

The main results from the empirical study can be summarized as follows: (i) TAW was found to be positively linked to both EA (b = 0.46) and IIB (b = 0.22); (ii) TAW and EA explained about 30% (R2 = 0.29) the variance in IIB; (iii) The relationship between TAW and IIB was found to be mediated by the EA; (iv) TAW was positively linked to each of the two dimensions that constitute EA. However, when comparing the individual strength of linkages, TAW was found to be most strongly linked to the exploitation dimension of EA (b = 0.50) and less strongly linked to the exploration dimension of EA (b = 0.35).

CONCLUSIONS

Employees' level of TAW in homecare services is linked to desirable outcomes, as represented by EA and IIB in this study. Managers should be aware of the development and changes in their employees' TAW levels. Consequently, continuously monitoring and cultivating the TAW of individual employees to determine whether they experience a sense of being energized and feeling alive as members of the organization is an important practical implication. TAW is a key to essential outcomes. Managers should, therefore, strive to let all of their employees thrive.

Dietitians as innovators: a deductive-inductive qualitative analysis

BACKGROUND

Frontline health professionals are well-placed to develop and implement beneficial innovations. Evidence supports the clinical and financial benefits of Registered Dietitian (RD)-led improvement initiatives, but we know little about how RDs perceive of innovation or of themselves as innovators. The objectives of the study were to gain an understanding of: 1) how RDs define innovation; 2) who RDs perceive as innovative; 3) whether RDs feel prepared to innovate, and; 4) to what extent work context impacts RDs' capacity to innovate at work.

METHODS

All RDs employed in Canada were eligible to participate. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and a deductive-inductive approach was applied to qualitative analysis. Specifically, Scott & Bruce's (1994) Path Model of Individual Innovation in the Workplace was first applied as a coding structure.

RESULTS

Respondents (n = 18) exhibited a pro-innovation disposition and a gendered perception of innovation. Few felt their preparatory education prepared them to be innovators in the workplace. All components of Scott & Bruce's model were supported. Inductive codes were categorized into five themes, including: benefits, dietetics-specific, health care system, technology and individual characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS

Researchers have previously raised concerns about gendered perceptions of innovation; our results support the legitimacy of these concerns. RDs reported entering the workforce unprepared to be innovative. While the applicability of Scott & Bruce's model among RDs was confirmed, deficits in the model were noted beyond what would be expected due to context.

Driving innovation in health care: exploring the impact of ambidextrous leadership on creative performance among frontline health professionals in Norway

BACKGROUND

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on enhancing frontline health professionals' ability to think and act innovatively, also known as their creative performance. However, previous research has had two limitations. First, only a few leadership styles and their associations with this capability have been examined. Second, there has been a lack of research on identifying potential process mediators and examining their role in the relationship between leadership styles and the professionals' capability. To address this knowledge gap, our study investigates the impact of ambidextrous leadership, a relatively new leadership style, on frontline health professionals' creative performance. Additionally, we explore whether frontline health professionals' learning orientation (an individual factor) and relationship learning (an organizational factor) act as process mediators in this association. No previous research has focused on these relationships. Thus, the study offers a unique contribution to health services research.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of N = 258 health professionals in nine Norwegian municipalities. The results of this study were analyzed using PLS-SEM with SmartPLS 3 software. The study examined both direct and indirect relationships through bootstrapping.

RESULTS

The results reveal a positive link between health professionals' creative performance and ambidextrous leadership [Formula: see text] = 0.224). Both relationship learning and learning orientation were found to operate as complementary process-mediating factors between health professionals' creative performance and ambidextrous leadership. The strength of the two individual relationships that constitute the process-mediating factors indicates that ambidextrous leadership has a stronger impact on relationship learning than on learning orientation [Formula: see text] = 0.504 versus β = 0.276). However, when we examined the individual associations between the two factors and creative performance, the strength of the relationships was quite different. The findings reveal that learning orientation is significantly more positively associated with creative performance than relationship learning [Formula: see text] = 0.302 versus β = 0.163). Ambidextrous leadership, learning orientation, and relationship learning explain 26% (R2 = 0.262) of the variance in professionals' creative performance.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that ambidextrous leadership can facilitate health professionals' creative performance directly and indirectly through the two process-mediating factors: relationship learning and learning orientation. Thus, a practical implication is the importance for health service organizations of clear awareness of the numerous advantages of having leaders who actively practice an ambidextrous leadership style.

The impact of organizational culture and leadership climate on organizational attractiveness and innovative behavior: a study of Norwegian hospital employees

BACKGROUND

In the domain of health services, little research has focused on how organizational culture, specifically internal market-oriented cultures (IMOCs), are associated with organizational climate resources, support for autonomy (SA), and whether and how IMOCs and SA are either individually or in combination related to employee perceptions of the attractiveness of the organization and their level of innovative behavior. These knowledge gaps in previous research motivated this study.

METHODS

A conceptual model was tested on a sample (N = 1008) of hospital employees. Partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the conceptual models, using the SmartPLS 3 software. To test the mediator effect, a bootstrapping test was used to determine whether the direct and indirect effects were statistically significant, and when combining two tests, to determine the type of mediator effect.

RESULTS

The results can be summarized as four key findings: i) organizational culture (referring to an IMOC) was positively and directly related to SA (β = 0.87) and organizational attractiveness (β = 0.45); ii) SA was positively and directly related to both organizational attractiveness (β = 0.22) and employee individual innovative behavior (β = 0.37); iii) The relationships between an IMOC, SA, and employee innovative behavior were all mediated through organizational attractiveness; and iv) SA mediated the relationship between the IMOC and organizational attractiveness as well as that between the IMOC and employee innovative behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Organizational culture, IMOC, organizational climate resources, and SA were highly correlated and necessary drivers of employee perceptions of organizational attractiveness and their innovative behavior. Managers of hospitals should consider IMOC and SA as two organizational resources that are potentially manageable and controllable. Consequently, managers should actively invest in these resources. Such investments will lead to resource capitalization that will improve both employee perceptions of organizational attractiveness as well as their innovative behavior.