Title: 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, University of Burgundy Europe
- Prof. Pierre Xavier MESCHI, Chair of the jury, Aix-Marseille University, France
- Prof. Marie DI NARDO, Associate Professor, Toulouse Business School
- Prof. FRANCK Brulhart, Supervising Lecturer, Aix-Marseille University, France
- Prof. CHRISTOPHE Favoreu, PhD supervisor, TBS Business School, France
Summary
Organisations in today’s knowledge-driven economy face complex, dynamic and competitive environments in which employee creativity, voice and innovation are crucial to survival and success. Research shows that leaders play a critical role in promoting these behaviours that encourage the contribution of ideas by shaping work environments and psychological resources. Among leadership styles, transformational leadership—through idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration—has frequently been linked to positive organisational outcomes. However, previous studies have yielded mixed results and have largely examined creativity, voice and innovative work behaviour separately, despite these representing an interconnected process of idea contribution.
Drawing on the theory of resource conservation, this thesis examines how and under what conditions transformational leadership influences employee voice, creativity and innovative work behaviour within a single framework, testing mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions across three empirical studies conducted in Saudi Arabia.
Study 1 (253 employees, public and private sectors): Transformational leadership has a positive influence on employees’ constructive voice behaviour, fully mediated by psychological empowerment. Interactions between leaders strengthen the relationship between transformational leadership and psychological empowerment, highlighting the importance of leaders’ upward relationships.
Study 2: Transformational leadership has an overall positive influence on employee creativity, although its ‘idealised influence’ dimension shows a negative association—revealing an asymmetric effect across dimensions. Creative role identity positively mediates this relationship, whilst identification with the leader does not. Migrant workers are more receptive to transformational leadership, which strengthens its effect on creative role identity and creativity.
Study 3 (team level): Transformational leadership has a positive influence on innovative work behaviour within teams through increased team engagement, with organisational embeddedness strengthening this relationship.
Taken together, these studies integrate employee creativity, voice and innovative work behaviour into a comprehensive framework for idea contribution, demonstrating that transformational leadership generates both enabling and constraining mechanisms. The thesis highlights the importance of psychological empowerment, creative role identity, team engagement and organisational 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, organisational embeddedness, team engagement, conservation of resources theory.