Grassroots Innovation: A Promising Innovation Paradigm for Pharmaceutical Companies - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 128

4.3.3 Senior Management Support

Despite the benefi ts of intrinsic motivation, employees often need to be extrinsically
motivated by incentives such as approval and support by senior management or
other tangible rewards (Gagné and Deci 2005 ). There is a well-established literature
on the importance of senior management's role in encouraging an entrepreneurial
mindset among employees (Gupta et al. 1986 ; Hornsby et al. 2002 ; Roberts and
Fusfeld 1981 ; Quinn 1979 ). In the case of grassroots innovation programs, manage-
ment support actions capable of motivating employees include prospects of career
progression unlocked by participation in such programs, the visibility gained in the
organization, the chance to access unique knowledge and new career development
paths, or simply being able to work on something one is passionate about. We orga-
nize these management support actions along the fi ve dimensions identifi ed by
Hornsby et al. ( 2002 ).
The fi rst dimension, resource allocation , refers to the level of resources—
such as budget, personnel, and time—that senior management invests to pro-
mote grassroots innovation. Literature in psychology and organizational
behavior shows that availability of resources is associated with higher employee
motivation (Schaufeli and Bakker 2004 ), higher employee engagement
(Demerouti et al. 2001 ; Kahn 1992 ), and willingness-to-experiment and take
risks (Burgelman and Sayles 1986 ). In grassroots innovation programs, avail-
ability of resources should promote employees' perceived autonomy (no need to
constantly go through formal approval processes) and intrinsic motivation for
innovation. For instance, it streamlines advancement of projects (e.g., through
access to dedicated budget lines) and it signals the support of senior manage-
ment to grassroots innovation.
Second, visibility of involvement refers to the willingness of managers to support
and facilitate grassroots innovation and employees' entrepreneurial activities
(Damanpour 1991 ; Kuratko et al. 1993 ). Besides allocation of suffi cient resources
(as discussed above), managers can increase the visibility of their involvement in
grassroots innovation by championing employee innovation, by institutionalizing
grassroots innovation within the fi rm and guarantee the involvement of senior man-
agers in the program to signal its importance (see Hornsby et al. 2002 ). Innovative
employees will easily relate with managers who champion grassroots innovation.
Most employees will also feel that, with so visible senior management support, it
will be easier to connect with other like-minded employees and establish mutually
benefi cial relationships with them.
The third dimension, tangible incentives , refers to performance-based
rewards (monetary or non-monetary) aimed at spurring employees' motivation
and entrepreneurial activity. Both common wisdom and prior literature
(Barringer and Milkovich 1998 ; Hornsby et al. 2002 ; Sykes 1992 ) suggest that
appropriately setting reward systems tends to spur entrepreneurial activity
among employees. Yet, according to SDT the use of extrinsic reward mecha-
nisms will only boost entrepreneurial activity if such nonintrinsic motivators are