INNOVATIVE ATTITUDES, VALUES, AND INTENTIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS [1

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper we explore the relationships between some of the various concepts and scales that have been used to characterize innovative attitudes and behaviours. A sample (N = 123) of undergraduate and graduate business students with full‐time jobs or the equivalent provided questionnaire data to test two initial hypotheses. It was found that four attitude‐value scales which have been used to measure change values, innovation orientation, readiness for change, and innovativenesss, are intercorrelated significantly when no distinction is made between the respondents’intentions to be innovative and respondents’actual innovative behaviour. Innovative and change attitudes, as measured by these same four scales, do consistently predict multiple innovative intentions and behaviours but not, as expected, single behaviours or single intentions. The single best predictor in a multiple regression of the combined multiple innovative intention‐behaviour measure was found to be a creative scale (R2= 0.43, p < 0.01). The innovative behaviour scale was tentatively called attitude toward being innovative. A factor analysis of this scale revealed dimensions related to innovative behaviour in organizations: the innovator, the preserver of the status quo, and the unchallenged, dissatisfied person.Two other hypotheses were also tested. The first was that the perceived organization risk‐taking climate would moderate the relationship between these attitude measures. This hypothesis was not supported by the overall results. However, moderate support was found for the hypothesis that the more formal authority a person has in an organization, the greater the consistency between change attitudes and innovative behaviours as measured by self‐report methods.