Charismatic leadership, change and innovation in an R&D organization

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of the charismatic dimension of transformational leadership on team processes and innovative outcomes in research and development (R&D) teams.

Data are collected by surveying 34 teams that totalled 178 participants. Surveys measured charismatic leadership style, team identity, cooperative strategies and team innovation.

Results reveal the importance of managers assuming a charismatic style of leadership to encourage innovation. Charismatic leaders promote team innovation by supporting a sense of team identity and commitment, and encourage team members to cooperate through the expression of ideas and participation in decisions.

The study is conducted in a single R&D organization and future research should explore the influence of these factors in other settings. The measures of team innovation are based on the perceptions of the team members, and future research needs to include a wider variety of data sources over time.

Successful team leaders who employ a more charismatic style facilitate more cooperative interactions in teams. Teams with a strong team identity combined with the exercise of cooperative behaviours are more innovative.

The preliminary model tested enhances the understanding of the importance of the leaders in influencing team processes and innovation. Leaders who are more transformational in style influence followers by affecting their sense of identity. This sense of identity influences how well teams adopt and follow more cooperative strategies to resolve issues and to make decisions. In turn, the model shows how these factors influence team innovation.