Corporate entrepreneurs or silent followers?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to explore how employee attitudes affect management behaviour in the corporate entrepreneurship (CE) setting. The paper focuses on the co‐evolutionary processes of practices and elements of the social structure, i.e. simultaneous top‐down and bottom‐up influences.

Design/methodology/approach

Organisation‐level data from individuals in the Finnish public‐sector health and social care organisation was obtained. The questionnaire comprised Likert‐scale attitude statements on different aspects of management behaviour, enabling structures, and individual attitudes. The data analysed consisted of 523 responses. Factor analysis and reliability tests were used to create aggregated measures for different CE antecedents and hierarchical regression analysis in order to test the causal model derived from the previous literature.

Findings

Empirical evidence of the crucial role of individual attitudes and action in CE was found, thus indicating that certain attitude types influence management behaviour. Straightforward communication emerged as the most important bottom‐up modality in that it is needed if individual attitudes are to influence managers.

Originality/value

The results challenge and complement previous research in the field of CE in recognising the crucial role of individual employees. The findings suggest that CE is not catalysed from the bottom up by silent followers, even though superiors find them comfortable to manage. It is rather the self‐confident and satisfied corporate entrepreneurs with initiative who critically question the existing working modes and thus catalyse CE. Finally, suggestions for further research were offered.

Citation

Heinonen, J. and Toivonen, J. (2008), "Corporate entrepreneurs or silent followers?", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 29 No. 7, pp. 583-599. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730810906335