Leadership in organisations for innovation and intrapreneurship

In this thesis, I argue that the characteristics of a leadership’s approach to welcoming new ideas can affect the participation of potential inventors. The objectives of the research are to develop a process of identifying the leadership characteristics that impact on how people participate their ideas to become innovation in the organisations. The aims of the research are to be able to use the identification to help leaders and organisations develop the characteristics that benefit a given situation, and in this case to benefit innovation and intrapreneurship. The research explores what are the more or less successful characteristics of leadership in terms of the expectations and experiences for when an idea is raised within the organisation. Leadership characteristics that affect the innovation process are explored using a mixed methodology formed of the analysis of leader’s job descriptions and interviews with both leaders and innovators. The research centres on the development and application of a diagnostic methodology to assess leadership, based upon the eight characteristics of the ‘Full Range of Leadership’ originally developed by Bass and Avoilo (1990). The basis of this methodology is extended to identify the gaps between actual and expected characteristics. Although the method is a modification of that originated by Bass and Avolio (1990), the results derived from this research can be correlated to the substantial body of other research that used the same underlying methodology, including for example research that addresses issues of leadership in terms of nationality, gender and hierarchical levels in an organisation. The outcomes of the research include the way in which the Full Range of Leadership model has been developed and used. This is applied to the needs of leading and managing an organisation’s existing products and services, at the same time as managing the need of developing new products and services for when the old products and services become obsolete. In addition to considering how leaders welcome participation in ideas and innovation, the contribution this research makes to professional practice includes how the method can be reused and applied to identify the existence of, or need for, different blends of leadership characteristics, for the variety of situations a leader may encounter.