New ways of working and intrapreneurial behaviour: the mediating role of transformational leadership and social interaction

To promote innovativeness and efficiency, an increasing number of firms have adopted New ways of working (NWW). However, it is not clear what effect NWW has on innovation-related outcomes, such as intrapreneurial behaviour. Therefore, we provide a first investigation on the relation between the facets of NWW and intrapreneurial behaviour, while testing transformational leadership and co-worker social interaction as mediators. We use a sample of 254 employees of the Dutch working population and apply the Preacher and Hayes' (Behav Res Methods 40(3):879-891, 2008) bootstrap method for multiple mediation to test our hypotheses. We find that NWW facets time- and location-independent work and management on output are positively related to intrapreneurial behaviour. In addition, we find that the relation between a freely accessible open workplace and intrapreneurial behaviour is mediated by transformational leadership. However, we find no relationship between co-worker social interaction and intrapreneurial behaviour and thus no mediating role for social interaction. Our research adds to the budding literature on the effects of NWW and to the literature on the determinants of intrapreneurial behaviour. We conclude that implementation of several NWW facets and a transformational leadership style could help foster intrapreneurial behaviour among employees, and that future research that further enhances the measurement of the NWW facets and investigates its configurational effects on intrapreneurial behaviour is welcome.

Automated summary

The study found that the time- and location-independent work mode and management style of NWW have a positive impact on intrapreneurial behavior, while the relationship between a freely accessible open workplace and intrapreneurial behavior is mediated by transformational leadership.