FOLLOWING THE LEADER IN RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT - THE JOINT EFFECT OF SUBORDINATE PROBLEM-SOLVING STYLE AND LEADER-MEMBER RELATIONS ON INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR

There have been relatively few theoretically based empirical studies o f leadership in research and development (R&D) settings despite theore tical indications of its importance, Some recent studies have found su pport for a relationship between transformational leadership and R&D p roject success, In the current study, we discuss the transactional and transformational nature of leader-member-exchange (LMX) theory. We th en develop hypotheses regarding the relationship of LMX and problem-so lving style to individual innovative behavior, We tested these hypothe ses in two independent samples of R&D professionals. The results of hi erarchical regression supported the hypotheses; innovative behavior wa s negatively related to associative and positively related to bisociat ive problem-solving style, and innovative behavior was positively rela ted to LMX. Further, LMX explained variance in innovative behavior bey ond that explained by problem-solving style alone, This relationship w as shown to hold regardless of the type of task in which the R&D profe ssionals were engaged, Implications for theory and for practicing mana gers are discussed.