Everyday innovation report - Nesta

Part 3: Characteristics and behaviours for innovative
working
3.1 Openness to ideas, original problem
solving and motivation are the top three
characteristics for innovative working
Our literature review 10 explores the association
between innovation and employee behaviours
and characteristics such as the influence of
cognitive ability, personality, motivation,
knowledge, behaviour, and emotion and mood
states. Key messages from the review are:
• Intelligence is a necessary but not sufficient
condition for innovation. Although cognitive
ability is related to innovation, it does not
account for a large amount of the variance
observed in employee innovation.
• The most common personality trait
associated with innovation is openness to
experience. Conscientiousness is found to be
a negative predictor of innovation, notably
in the case of being dutiful and methodical.
The influence of other personality traits (e.g.
extraversion) is domain/context-dependent.
• Motivation is one of the most important
predictors of innovative working.
Management style significantly influences
employee motivation to innovate. Innovative
people are intrinsically motivated by change
such that extrinsic rewards do not necessarily
enhance innovative working.
• Domain-specific knowledge is a key human
resource for innovation in organisations.
• Studies focusing on the employee
behaviours associated with innovation
highlight personal initiative, proactivity and
social competence.
• The association between mood and
innovation is complex and requires further
investigation. Emotional intelligence might
be an important requisite for innovation but
this is still relatively unexplored.
Research literature shows that personal
initiative and motivation contribute to
innovation, particularly in relation to
the implementation of ideas. 11,12 Some
characteristics and behaviours are more
effective or desirable at different phases of the
innovation cycle. 13 As shown in Table 1, these
findings were confirmed in the survey where
respondents ranked motivation or personal
initiative as one of the top three employee
behaviours contributing to innovative working.
This is confirmed by our interviewees.
“Risk taking, resilience, motivation, and
imagination are the key characteristics of
individual innovators” (Robert Farace, National
Resourcing Manager at the NHS Institute
for Innovation). Openness to ideas is one of
the most important individual characteristics
for innovation, 14 which was confirmed in our
survey with six out of ten respondents ranking
openness amongst the top three individual
contributors to innovative working in their
organisation (see Table 1). Derek Smith, CEO
at UBS Service centre says: “open mindedness,
a willingness to share ideas, and to adapt
and develop are at the core of employee
innovation”.
Many of our interviewees recognise the
value of resilience for successful innovation.
“Bringing an idea to the market is one of
the most difficult aspects of innovating”
(Jurij Paraszczak, Director of IBM Industry
Solutions, New York. Successful innovators
must be skilful at making their case when
trying to overcome the barriers that often come
10. Patterson, F. et al. (2009)
Op. cit.
11. Patterson, F. (2004) Personal
initiative and innovation
at work. ‘Encyclopaedia
of Applied Psychology.’ 2,
pp.843-855.
12. Sternberg, R.J. and Lubart,
T.I. (1999) The concept of
creativity: Prospects and
paradigms. In Sternberg,
R.J. (Ed.) ‘Handbook of
creativity.’ New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.
pp.3-15.
13. Amabile, T.M. (1988) A
model of creativity and
innovation in organizations.
‘Research in Organizational
Behaviour.’ 10, pp.123-167.
14. Patterson, F. (2002) Great
minds don’t think alike?
Person level predictors
of innovation at work.
‘International Review of
Industrial and Organisational
Psychology.’ 17, pp.115-
144.
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