IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/rvmgts/v19y2025i9d10.1007_s11846-025-00837-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Supporting innovating employees: how managerial coaching affects four dimensions of innovative work behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Pajuoja

    (University of Vaasa)

  • Riitta Viitala

    (University of Vaasa)

  • Kaisa Henttonen

    (University of Eastern Finland)

Abstract

SMEs rely on innovation, and individual employees come up with and implement ideas to act as the microfoundations of organizational innovation. Managers play a critical role in encouraging employees’ innovative work behavior. However, thus far, this relationship has been studied utilizing a one-dimensional construct, and little is known about whether a determinant affects all phases of the innovation process equally. We investigate the effect of managerial coaching– managers coaching their employees to improve performance– on four dimensions of innovative work behavior. We show that managerial coaching positively influences innovative behavior in organizations, but is least important when employees explore ideas and most important when they implement ideas. We also find that employees tend to be more comfortable exploring and generating ideas than championing and implementing them, indicating innovation potential at the employee level which can be unlocked if managers know how to coach employees at the right time.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Pajuoja & Riitta Viitala & Kaisa Henttonen, 2025. "Supporting innovating employees: how managerial coaching affects four dimensions of innovative work behavior," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 19(9), pages 2937-2958, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:19:y:2025:i:9:d:10.1007_s11846-025-00837-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11846-025-00837-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11846-025-00837-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11846-025-00837-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:19:y:2025:i:9:d:10.1007_s11846-025-00837-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.