FOSTERING EMPLOYEES’ INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIOUR IN HEALTHCARE ORGANISATIONS

Healthcare workers’ innovative work behaviour plays a key role in generating innovation. To date determinants of innovative work behaviour are not completely detected and there is a call for additional empirical evidence on organizational-level factors influencing individual’s innovation. This study empirically explores the relationships between organizational climate, organisation’s openness to innovation, and innovative work behaviour in the context of a public sector healthcare organization. A survey has been conducted on employees of a large Italian public sector hospital. Data collected on 560 professionals have been analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling technique. The results show that organisational climate affects employees’ innovative work behavior both directly and indirectly through organisation’s openness to innovation. Specifically our findings highlight that organization’s openness to innovation partially mediates the relationship between organizational climate and employees’ innovative work behavior. The results should lead managers to consider the importance of organizational climate and openness to innovation as effective levers to pull in order to improve employees’ innovative work behavior.