Fostering Innovation: The Mediating Role of Need Satisfaction between Managerial Need Support and Team Innovation Behavior

Abstract

Innovation is essential for organizational survival and development. Intrinsically motivated individuals are more likely to exhibit innovative behavior, and Self- Determination Theory (SDT) suggests that intrinsic motivation requires three basic psychological needs: Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness. Thus, it was hypothesized that managerial support of employees’ basic psychological needs would enhance need satisfaction and thereby promote team innovative behavior. It was further hypothesized that the autonomy relationships would be moderated by the restrictive work design of the sample. A pre-registered analysis was performed of 546 blue collar workers in four production companies in Sweden. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the mediation hypotheses, with multi-group analysis testing moderation. The results demonstrated that the relationship between managers’ support of autonomy and team innovative behavior was fully mediated by autonomy need satisfaction. Competence and relatedness did not demonstrate mediation. Work design autonomy did not moderate the relationships between autonomy dimensions. A supplemental second-order factor (SOF) of need support was created due to potential discriminant validity problems. The SOF of managerial need support demonstrated a full mediation effect through need satisfaction onto innovative behavior. This study demonstrated that managers could improve the innovative behavior of their employees via supporting their psychological needs.