Titre : From Ideas to Innovation: The Role of Transformational Leadership in Fostering Voice, Creativity and Innovative Work Behaviour
Jury
- Prof. Foued CHERIET, Rapporteur, Institut Agro Montpellier
- Prof. Samuel MERCIER, Rapporteur, Université Bourgogne Europe
- Prof. Pierre Xavier MESCHI, President du jury, Aix-Marseille Université, France
- Prof. Marie DI NARDO, Suffragante, Toulouse Business School
- Prof. FRANCK Brulhart, Directeur de thèse, Aix-Marseille Université, France
- Prof. CHRISTOPHE Favoreu, Directeur de thèse, TBS Business School, France
Résumé
Organizations in today’s knowledge-driven economy face complex, dynamic, and competitive environments where employee creativity, voice, and innovation are crucial for survival and success. Research shows leaders play a critical role in promoting these idea contribution behaviors by shaping work environments and psychological resources. Among leadership styles, transformational leadership—through idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration—has been frequently linked to positive organizational outcomes. However, prior studies show mixed findings and have largely examined creativity, voice, and innovative work behavior separately, despite these representing an interconnected idea contribution process.
Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this thesis examines how and under what conditions transformational leadership influences employee voice, creativity, and innovative work behavior within a single framework, testing mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions across three empirical studies conducted in Saudi Arabia.
Study 1 (253 employees, public/private sector): Transformational leadership positively influences employee constructive voice behavior, fully mediated by psychological empowerment. Leader–leader exchange strengthens the relationship between transformational leadership and psychological empowerment, highlighting the importance of leaders’ upward exchange relationships.
Study 2: Transformational leadership positively influences employee creativity overall, though its idealized influence dimension shows a negative association—revealing an asymmetric effect across dimensions. Creative role identity positively mediates this relationship, while identification with the leader does not. Migrant workers show greater receptivity to transformational leadership, strengthening its effect on creative role identity and creativity.
Study 3 (team level): Transformational leadership positively influences team innovative work behavior through increased team engagement, with organizational embeddedness strengthening this relationship.
Collectively, these studies integrate employee creativity, voice, and innovative work behavior into a comprehensive idea contribution framework, demonstrating that transformational leadership generates both enabling and constraining mechanisms. The thesis underscores the importance of psychological empowerment, creative role identity, team engagement, and organizational embeddedness in fostering employee idea contribution and innovation.
Keywords: Transformational leadership, employee voice, employee creativity, innovative work behaviour, psychological empowerment, creative role identity, leader–leader exchange, organizational embeddedness, team engagement, conservation of resources theory.