Knowledge workers' existential affirmation and innovativeness: a Kierkegaardian redescription of Drucker
European Journal of Innovation Management
ISSN: 1460-1060
Article publication date: 1 January 2021
Issue publication date: 16 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Although existing studies demonstrate positive relationships between ethical cultures and innovativeness, their explanations of why an ethical culture leads to innovativeness are limited. This study explores the relationship between ethical organizational culture and knowledge workers' innovativeness
Design/methodology/approach
Based on Kierkegaardian existential philosophy, this study proposes a research model that employs knowledge workers' existential affirmation as the link between ethical culture and innovativeness. The main hypothesis proposed in this study is that ethical organizational culture offers knowledge workers the opportunity to find their existential affirmation, which leads them to become more innovative. A structural equation modeling analysis is based on data collected from a survey of 348 knowledge workers from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in different hi-tech industries.
Findings
The findings suggest that among the four subdimensions of an ethical organizational culture, ethics training and awareness raising had the strongest relationships with knowledge workers' existential affirmation, which, in turn, had a significant relationship with their innovativeness.
Originality/value
Based on this philosophical reflection, this study develops a research model that examines knowledge workers' existential affirmation as the factor that links ethical organizational culture and knowledge workers' innovativeness. The authors test ethical organizational culture as an environment that allows knowledge workers to validate their existential affirmation. Further, they test the link between knowledge workers' existential affirmation and their innovativeness.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by Konkuk University in 2018 (2018-A019–0641). This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph A. Maciariello (1941-2020). His pure passion for the Drucker legacy continues to drive the authors in management research.
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph A. Maciariello (1941–2020). His pure passion for the Drucker legacy continues to drive us in management research.
Citation
Shin, M.M., Lee, J. and Chung, J.-h. (2022), "Knowledge workers' existential affirmation and innovativeness: a Kierkegaardian redescription of Drucker", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 390-412. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-10-2020-0391
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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