Leadership and Innovation: Informal Power and Its Relationship to Innovative Culture

Abstract

The current article sought to contribute to the literature on leadership and power by exploring two relatively new and less‐examined bases of social power: information power and connection power. Data from 160 employees were collected, and principal component analysis was used to examine the uniqueness of each power source. Support was found for expert, legitimate, reward, coercive, and the newly developed construct of connection power. Limited support was found for referent and information power. Furthermore, the association between information power, connection power, and informal power with innovative culture (operationally defined as adhocracy culture) was examined. For exploratory purposes, one item measuring horizontal structure was included. The findings suggested that informal sources of power, particularly when combined with a horizontal organizational structure, complemented and reinforced an innovative culture. Implications and future research directions were discussed.

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