Leadership, Collaborative Capital, and Innovation

Abstract

Based on a four-factor leadership typology, this theoretical chapter proposes four alternative models to investigate how collaborative capital moderates the relationships between leadership and innovation. Beyerlein, Beyerlein, and Kennedy (2004) define collaborative capital as “how well people work together toward shared goals and outcomes.” In this chapter, we focus on empowerment as an important manifestation of collaborative capital. That is, first, empowerment enhances collaboration across vertical hierarchical lines through sharing of decision-making authority. Also, since empowerment is typically implemented as a team form of organizational structure, empowered teams enhance collaboration through the process of decentralized team decision-making. Thus, the accumulation of successful empowerment and the qualities of empowered team member represent the collaborative capital. Specifically, the models suggest that empowerment may function as a partial mediator, or as a moderator, or as both, in the basic relationship between transformational leadership and innovation. In addition, although transformational leadership and empowering leadership elicit different attitudes and behaviors of team members that may facilitate innovation, the interactions between these outcomes will maximize the effects of leadership on innovation. The implications of these observations and the possible directions for future research are discussed.

Citation

Zhang, X. and Sims, H.P. (2005), "Leadership, Collaborative Capital, and Innovation", Beyerlein, M.M., Beyerlein, S.T. and Kennedy, F.A. (Ed.) Collaborative Capital: Creating Intangible Value (Advances in Interdisciplinary Studies of Work Teams, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 211-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1572-0977(05)11008-5