Support for innovation is expected to correlate with IWB as support is an antecedent of
employees’ intrinsic motivation. Support implies that leaders demonstrate a high
degree of confidence in their employees, not blaming them for every mistake or wrong
decision. In any innovation process things are likely to go wrong. No one can predict
which ideas will be successful (King & Anderson, 2002). Support for innovation
enables employees to be relaxed and focus on the generation and/or implementation of
innovative ideas, rather than having to worry about how to act should their leader
criticize them. This strengthens their intrinsic motivation (Jung et al., 2003; Dewett,
2007). And, as innovative people generally explore first and ask permission later
(Mumford, 2000), the consequence of no support would be that individuals withdraw
an innovative idea when confronted with premature criticism – while their ideas are
still in an early stage.