by
ANNE NEDERVEEN PIETERSE*, DAAN VAN KNIPPENBERG,
MICHAE´LA SCHIPPERS AND DAAN STAM
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
from
Journal of Organizational Behavior
J. Organiz. Behav. 31, 609–623 (2010)
Innovative behavior is increasingly important for organizations’ survival. Transformational
leadership, in contrast to transactional leadership, has been argued to be particularly effective
in engendering follower innovative behavior. However, empirical evidence for this relationship
is scarce and inconsistent. Addressing this issue, we propose that follower psychological
empowerment moderates the relationship of transformational and transactional leadership
with follower innovative behavior. In a field study with 230 employees of a government agency
in the Netherlands combining multisource ratings, we show that transformational leadership is
positively related to innovative behavior only when psychological empowerment is high,
whereas transactional leadership has a negative relationship with innovative behavior only
under these conditions.
