A leadership model validation : dimensions influential to innovation

Background: Current pressures for globalisation force organisations to explore, create and implement new ideas in order to remain competitive. This necessitates the need to utilise innovation to diversify products and services, introduce new technology, establish new managerial and administrative practices, and initiate transformation in other areas of the organisation. Objectives: This article explored the relationship between the latent variables, namely, rewards, resources, leadership vision and innovation, as postulated by De Jong and Den Hartog's leadership model for stimulating innovation. Method: The research approach chosen to investigate the research questions was an ex post facto, cross-sectional field survey. Secondary data from a reputable financial institution with extensive business in three African countries (Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia) were used as the data were collected by the institution and made available to the researcher for further analysis. A complete sample size of N = 584 was obtained across the three countries. Confirmatory factor analysis was initially used to provide a confirmatory test of the measurement theory followed by structural equation modelling which allowed to test for regression amongst the latent variables (rewards, resources, leadership vision and innovation). Results: Structural equation modelling revealed that only leadership vision and resources were found to be statistically significant; rewards showed a negative relationship (r = -0.02) with innovation. Resources made the greater contribution (r = 0.75) to innovation, compared to leadership vision (r = 0.28). Conclusion: The study empirically validate and support the assertion of De Jong and Den Hartog (2007) that the latent variables resources and leadership vision positively correlate with innovation in the context of the financial services industry.