| Summary: | This dissertation concerns individual innovation. Its aims were to investigate which factors allow individuals to be innovative in their organizations, and how these factors interact to bring about innovation. To accomplish this we developed three empirical studies. In our first study, we considered self-leadership as a set of strategies that might have a positive impact on employees’ individual innovation. Our results showed the existence of 3 different clusters of self-leadership strategies and that individual innovation is more frequent when all self-leadership strategies are used. Our second study considered work engagement as a possible mechanism that acted in the relation between self-leadership and individual innovation. Our results evidenced a positive relationship between self-leadership, work engagement and individual innovation. Furthermore, they indicated that work engagement had a mediating effect on the relationship between self-leadership and individual innovation. Our third study examined the longitudinal relationships between self-leadership, work engagement and individual innovation. The results supported the existence of a reciprocal model of relations. In addition, a positive effect of time emerged regarding constructive thought pattern strategies. Our findings indicate a dynamic relationship between these variables, and suggest that resourceful workforces can engender positive gain cycles along time. Overall, the results of our three studies contributed to the literature on individual innovation and allowed to clarify the positive role that self-leadership and work engagement have as paramount factors for individual innovation to occur. In addition, they provide insights into new ideas of interventions that may promote the development of individual innovation at work.
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