How leaders influence employees' innovative behaviour

Purpose To provide an inventory of leader behaviours likely to enhance employees' innovative behaviour, including idea generation and application behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Based on a combination of literature research and in‐depth interviews, the paper explores leadership behaviours that stimulate employees' idea generation and application behaviour. The study was carried out in knowledge‐intensive service firms (e.g. consultants, researchers, engineers). Findings It was found that there were 13 relevant leadership behaviours. Although innovative behaviour is crucial in such firms, it has received very little attention from researchers. Leaders influence employees' innovative behaviour both…