Job Design and the Employee Innovation Process: The Mediating Role of Learning Strategies

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine whether employee learning strategies is a mechanism through which job design affects the employee innovation process. In particular, we test whether work-based learning strategies mediate the relationship between job design characteristics (job control and problem demand) and key components of the innovation process (idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation). Design/Methodology/Approach: Data were collected from a survey of 327 employees in a UK manufacturing organization. Findings: Structural equation modeling confirmed the mediating role of learning strategies in the relationship between job design and idea generation. The effects of job control on idea generation were mediated by work-based learning strategies and the effects of problem demand on idea generation were partially mediated by work-based learning strategies. Problem demand also had a direct relationship with idea generation and idea promotion. The findings provide support for the general idea that learning is a mechanism thorough which job design affects outcomes. Implications: The results of the study show practitioners that creating jobs with high control or high problem demand can help to promote the employee innovation process; and that this is partly due to the role that such jobs play in stimulating the use of learning strategies at work. Originality/Value: This article develops and tests a new theoretical model that explains how learning is a route through which job design influences employee innovation. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC