european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
significantly with support for innovation. The positive correlation indicates that high quality leadermember
exchange results in the subordinates perceiving the climate as supportive of innovation. This
is in keeping with the findings of Koxlowski and Doherty (1989) and Dunegan et. al (1992).
The significant correlation between resource supply with support for innovation indicate that
perception of support for innovation is enhanced when it is accompanied with resource supply. The
relationship between leader role expectation, problem-solving style, age, career stage and academic
qualifications of the members with their perception of support for innovation was found to be not
significant.
Table 2: Relationship between Leader-Member Exchange, Role Expectation and Problem-¬solving Style
with Resource Supply for Innovation
Variables r p
Leader-member exchange 0.54 0.0001 *
Leader role expectation 0.36 0.03 *
Systematic problem-solving style 0.06 0.929
Intuitive problem-solving style 0.35 0.002 *
Age -0.06 0.702
Career stage -0.10 0.702
Academic Qualification -0.09 0.426
* Significant art P < 0.05 level
Table 2 shows that there is significant relationship between leader-member exchange(0.54, p <
0.05), leader role expectation (0.36, p < 0.05) and intuitive problem-solving style (0.35, p < 0.05) with
resource supply. The exceptions being systematic problem-solving style, age, career stage and
academic qualifications of the members. This indicates that a high quality leader-member exchange
and high leader role expectation for innovation will be manifested in the leaders providing resource
supply for their members to accomplish their tasks. In addition the results imply that intuitive problemsolving
style which is characterized by overlapping separate domain of thought simultaneously and
emphasis on imagery and intuition requires that individual's perception of resource supply as adequate
in terms of time to pursue creative ideas, adequate resources, facilities and assistance.
The systematic problem-solving style which is characterized by following set routines and
adhering to rules and use of rationality and logic does not depend on perception of resource supply.
Table 3: Relationship between Leader-Member Exchange, Leader Role Expectation and Individual Problem-
Solving Style with Perceived Psychological Climate for Innovation(Support for Innovation +
Resource Supply)
Variables r p
Leader-member exchange 0.51 0.0001*
Leader role expectation 0.12 0.32
Systematic problem-solving style 0.03 0.82
Intuitive problem-solving style 0.11 0.35
Age -0.14 0.231
Career stage -0.15 0.206
Academic qualification -0.12 0.298
* Significant art P < 0.05 level
The relationship between the predictor variables and the perceived climate for innovative
behavior is shown in Table 3. The perceived psychological climate for innovation is obtained by
computing support with innovation and resource supply. The results show that only leader-member
exchange (r = 0.51, p < 0.05) has significant correlation with perceived climate for innovation. This
implies that a high quality leader ¬member exchange will result in the members perceiving the
psychological climate as being supportive of innovation. This is probably because high quality leader-
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