Management Innovation and Middle Managers: The Role of Empowering Leadership, Voice, and Collectivist Orientation

Exposing under which conditions management innovation diffuses within firms, this study investigates at the individual level the mediating influence of middle managers’ voice behavior on the relationship between CEOs’ empowering leadership behavior and perceived management innovation. We also propose that the magnitude of this relationship depends on middle managers’ collectivist orientation. This study exploits a unique Moroccan sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and utilizes structural equation modeling to analyze the studied relations. We found that the positive relationship between CEOs’ empowering leadership behavior and management innovation is mediated by middle managers’ voice. This effect is conditioned by middle managers’ collectivist orientations, which positively influence their attention to CEOs’ signals and the value and frequency of their contributions to management innovation. While research has identified the external and organizational factors that shape management innovation, our study concentrates on the individual level and accentuates that middle managers’ closeness to management processes, combined with their access to technical knowledge, renders them essential to management innovation. We contradict arguments that middle managers may be less inclined to help management innovation to emerge. SMEs can systematically invest in management innovation by advancing their managerial capabilities and considering individual value orientations. 为了揭示管理创新在企业内部扩散的条件，本文考察了中层管理者建言行为对CEO授权与其感知到的企业管理创新之间的中介作用，并提出中层管理者的集体主义导向会调节这三者之间的关系。作者在摩洛哥收集了独特的中小企业样本，并采用结构方程模型进行分析，发现CEO授权型领导行为使得中层管理者更敢于建言，公司的管理创新因此越多。同时，中层管理者的集体主义导向影响他们积极关注CEO发出的信号，及他们在管理创新上所作贡献的价值和频率。虽然过往研究已经发现了一些塑造管理创新的外部因素和组织因素，但本研究聚焦于个体层面，强调中层管理者与管理过程的密切关系及其所掌握的技术知识对管理创新的重要作用。本文反驳了中层管理者可能不太愿意推进管理创新的观点，并启示中小企业可以通过投资中层管理者的能力并考虑个体的价值取向来系统地开展管理创新。