<p> The focus of the qualitative case study was to understand how innovative work behavior was affected by leaders’ relationship with their employees to enhance job commitment in the grocery retail industry. Specifically, the research involved exploring how the leader and employee relationship can affect employee engagement as a mediator for innovative work behavior. Innovative work behavior is when an employee is generating and implementing useful ideas. The general business problem was that organizations in the grocery retail industry lack innovative work behaviors to meet the market demand for innovation and remain competitive. The study involved triangulating three data sources: open-ended, semistructured interview questions used with one-on-one interviews; a focus group; and public documents from the participating organization headquartered in the western United States. The central research question was as follows: How do grocery retail industry knowledge workers’ relationships with their leaders affect their commitment and ability to generate and implement ideas? Triangulating the data sources helped to better describe the dominant themes that answered the overarching central research question and indicated leadership style is a significant antecedent to employee engagement that can promote the generation and implementation of useful ideas leading to continuous innovation. High-quality leader-member exchanges that promote mutual respect and trust can stimulate employee engagement that may help the employee generate useful ideas and ways to implement these ideas. The unexpected findings were the trends and preferences revealed within generational groupings from all 11 study participants. Understanding the unique generational differences provides insight into leadership practices to promote innovative work behavior. The needs and wants expressed by the millennial participants indicated their leaders should be more of a coach and mentor. The Generation X and baby boomer participants were seeking more autonomy and resources to explore ideas. Future researchers could consider exploring a deeper understanding of the multigenerational knowledge workers’ needs and wants to help leaders stimulate employee engagement and increase innovative work behavior.</p><p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:13422467 |
| Date | 15 January 2019 |
| Creators | Miller, Linda J. |
| Publisher | Capella University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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