What Matters most for museums? Individual and social influences on employees’ innovative behaviour

ABSTRACT

Although prior research has discussed the effects of several determinants on individual innovativeness, little is known about how individual together with social processes impact the adoption of innovation by employees. To address this issue and to examine the mediating mechanisms through which transformational leaders influence innovative behaviour, 200 museum employees were asked to fill out the Individual Innovativeness Scale, the Team Climate Inventory, and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, as well as to provide their demographic data. The multiple regression analysis revealed that individuals’ demographics, transformational style of leadership, and task orientation are essential to explain museum employees’ innovativeness. Additionally, task orientation partially mediated the association between transformational leadership style and individual innovation. These findings not only provide a valuable basis for better understanding museum employees’ acceptance of innovation, but also put forward the need to consider various variables on the promotion of employees’ innovative behaviour within art organizations.

KEYWORDS:

• Individual innovation
• transformational leadership style
• team climate
• museum employees’ innovativeness
• mediation analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ioanna Goulaptsi is pursuing her PhD at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Greece). Her research interests include museum innovation, leadership, and arts marketing.

Maria Manolika received a PhD in Media Psychology and Communication from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Her research focuses on art attendees’ behaviour and aesthetic appreciation.

George Tsourvakas is a Professor at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Greece), and his research focuses on media economics and arts management. He has received several awards for his research, and his work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals in the field of arts management.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.