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Abstract:
Driving innovation through effective leadership systems and behaviours at all organisational levels is becoming increasingly critical for success. This leads to a mandate for competence development for companies. The paper investigates the operationalisation of organisational innovation leadership (OIL) competencies based on a systematic literature review. To define competencies, our literature study uses the three action domains: knowing, doing, and being. The authors refer to them as knowledge, skills, and attitudes. By putting together critical OIL competency clusters and adding knowledge, skills, and attitudes, we obtain a two-dimensional framework, the "OIL Competency Grid". It includes six critical action domains that result in 18 aspects overall.
Keywords: Innovation Leadership, Competencies, Transformational Leadership, Innovation Culture, Knowledge-oriented Leadership, Servant Leadership, Ambidextrous Leadership, Shared Leadership
1 Introduction
Driving innovation through effective leadership systems and behaviours at all organisational levels is becoming increasingly critical for performance and organisations' success (Hughes et al. 2018; Isaksen 2017). Research on innovation leadership (IL) competencies, however, appears to be limited and fragmented, with little evidence of a cumulative and coherent body of knowledge emerging on the topic (De Jong & den Hårtog 2007; Vlok 2012). Furthermore, according to Rickards and Moger (2006), leadership remains an implicit factor within most models of innovation. The authors suggest that leadership, creativity, and innovation are knowledge systems which can be more closely integrated for improved theory and competence development practice. The gap in knowledge about leadership competencies relevant to improving innovation performance was the main reason for undertaking the present literature review and conceptual modelling. This study is part of an overarching international research project that aims to develop an IL competency framework that examines multiple levels of leadership (self, team, organisational, organisational ecosystems) (Denti & Hemlin 2012). This paper, however, is focused solely on IL competencies at the organisational level. Results regarding leadership competences related to self-leadership, the leadership of teams or dyadic leadership relationships as well as leadership in business networks were deliberately not included.
Overall, the number of contributions on the topic is increasing, but the research landscape on organisational innovation leadership (OIL) is currently very differentiated and scattered, with many contributions referring to a specific industry, a specific country or to certain organisational sizes based on selected case studies, resulting in a lack...