Motivating for Innovating: Examining the Relationship Between Regulatory Focus and Workplace Innovation

Abstract

Understanding employee motivation is central to fostering workplace innovation (WPI) within firms for enhanced quality of working life and work performance. This research examines the relationship between WPI and the promotion and prevention orientations for motivation proposed by regulatory focus theory (RFT). Survey responses from 309 service industry employees and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) aid in empirically assessing this relationship. Survey results indicate a positive relationship between the promotion focus of RFT and the dimensions of WPI, but not the prevention focus. The study also finds empirical support for the relationship between regulatory focus and the innovative climate of service industry firms. Guided by these findings, this study encourages managers to savvily work on workplace climate-based development and promotion-based organisational designs for initiatives and action plans that foster WPI.