Innovative Behavior in the Workplace: the Role of Performance and Image Outcome Expectations

Why do employees engage in innovative behavior at their workplaces? We examine how employees’ innovative behavior is explained by expectations for such behavior to affect job performance (expected positive performance outcomes) and image inside their organizations (expected image risks and expected image gains). We found significant effects of all three outcome expectations on innovative behavior. These outcome expectations, as intermediate psychological processes, were shaped by contextual and individual difference factors, including perceived organization support for innovation, supervisor relationship quality, job requirement for innovativeness, employee reputation as innovative, and individual dissatisfaction with the status quo.