When the fire dies: Perceived success and support for innovation shape the motivating potential of innovative work behaviour

Abstract

In recent years, there seems to have grown a perspective in the literature that innovation will have uniformly positive outcomes for individuals and organizations. This is unfortunate as innovative individuals may not always experience the assumed positive motivational consequences of being innovative at work. Our study aims to examine under which conditions engaging in innovative work behaviour (IWB) may not leads to desired motivational outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal field study involving 100 industrial product design and electronic engineering students participating for 7 days in an innovation boot camp. In support of our hypotheses, we found that day-level IWB leads to higher basic need satisfaction at the subsequent day when perceived success and support for innovation were high. However, when these moderators were low, the hypothesized relationship became non-significant. Our study results yield useful suggestions for helping individuals in maintaining optimal motivation throughout innovation processes