Data structure of managers’ and employees’ verbatim comments at T1, T2 and T3
| Verbatim comments | First-order code | Second-order theme | Aggregated dimension |
|---|---|---|---|
| “We want to do our best but at times our leaders do not appear to be interested in what we are doing. Sometimes I feel like a headless chicken.” (Emp at T1) | Show interest | Inspirational motivation | Transformational leadership |
| “I could feel the entire organization is involved after the 2-day LIT introduction workshop. We focus on addressing the issues rather than pointing fingers and blaming each other. We now have a collective thinking spirit.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I encourage my staff to innovate and make changes, but they will not ‘move’ unless I record it in their performance plans.” (Mgr at T1) | Sense of purpose | ||
| “I like the way my manager applies what we have learnt during the LIT, especially in scoping the issue and providing direction on how I should tackle the issue.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I think they (managers) should be informed about these processes and the importance of leadership. This is my opinion because many are very unsure about providing a vision in their job.” (Emp at T1) | Provide vision | Idealized influence | |
| “I could see that management has become more understanding and encouraging. They make things happen; it is no longer like in the past when they just paid lip service.” (Emp at T3) | Make things happen | ||
| “Talking is cheap - just issuing a memo to ask everyone to think of ways to improve our daily work won’t do.” (Emp at T1) | Communication | Individualized consideration | |
| “This way, we as leaders keep our employees motivated, and show that we care and value their views.” (Mgr at T2) | Listening | ||
| “It was only through the training and our project that we got to come together with colleagues from different departments to question and challenge each other’s work processes. And our sponsor [Manager] is aligned. He makes time to listen, gives feedback and even works with us in resolving the issues. I feel more confident now to speak up and challenge my own and my colleagues’ processes.” (Emp at T2) | Make time | ||
| “During this period of working with the team on their projects, two-way communication and timely feedback are really essential. This keeps our employees motivated and shows that we care and value their views.” (Mgr at T3) | Feedback | ||
| “I have learnt to hold quality conversations with the staff. This helps to build the foundation of our relationship. I could sense that the employees feel more comfortable with me joining them in their monthly Time for Innovation session.” (Mgr at T3) | Coaching | ||
| “I have started having dialogues with employees at various levels. Through these sessions, I get to know the employees better, and get to hear their thoughts and ideas for improving our operations and the community.” (Mgr at T3) | Relationship building | ||
| “Some of the tasks I am handling are simple, but they are just administratively complex due to the nature of our work. I have suggested to my boss to change the way we work. I hope it can happen soon.” (Emp at T1) | Initiate change | Intellectual stimulation | |
| “My manager has started a monthly ‘time for innovation’ session for us to look at our work processes and explore ways to improve. I really like this.” (Emp at T3) | |||
| “I often encourage my staff to give ideas, even if they may sound silly. However, they do not see the need to do so. They prefer to stick to the old ways.” (Mgr at T1) | Challenge status quo | ||
| “I am not creative. I am not sure I can really help. It cannot be so bad to learn a new skill though.” (Emp at T1) | Being creative | Confidence to innovate | Employee creative role identity |
| “I have difficulty in expressing my thoughts and work improvement ideas to my staff.” (Mgr at T1) | |||
| “I am not aware that innovation can be applied on our daily work. This makes a lot of sense.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “Creativity is needed at Apple. We are a government entity. How creative are we allowed to be?” (Emp at T1) | Skepticism | ||
| “If everyone is expected to give ideas at work, who is going to get things done.” (Emp at T1) | |||
| “I do not think innovation is more important than getting our work done. I am already pretty swamped with my work.” (Emp at T1) | |||
| “Innovation works in a perfect training environment but not in my real work processes.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I told you, this does not work in real life.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “Creativity is not too difficult. The tools help a lot. I love SCAMPER.” (Emp at T2) | Ease | ||
| “This was fun. And we created some nice moments of surprise. My surprise is: this can really work.” (Emp at T2) | This can work | ||
| “The staff are not speaking up their ideas unless they know it will not come across as sabotaging their colleagues.” (Mgr at T1) | Relationship with colleagues | ||
| “When my colleague broke the silence and shared her ideas, especially during the project discussion and coaching, it made me feel confident and motivated to speak up, express my ideas too even though I knew they may not be perfect.” (Emp at T3) | Self-confidence | ||
| “I think what is important is to have a certain scope for autonomy, to offer freedom - freedom in one’s own thinking.” (Mgr at T1) | Freedom to think | Show individual creativity | |
| “I do not have the knowledge and skills to innovate.” (Emp at T1) | Creativity | Idea generation | Employee innovative work behavior |
| “My staff is not creative. They often refer to me for ideas.” (Mgr at T1) | |||
| “I am surprised that I can be creative.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I am happy with what my predecessors have set up, there is no need to change.” (Emp at T1) | Challenge status quo | ||
| “I could see that there are many processes we really need to improve. Otherwise, we will not progress as an organization.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “We have made some major amendments in our processes. Now we need to make sure management approves and we make it stick.” (Emp at T2) | Get approval | Champion ideas | |
| “Did you see our innovation dashboard in the pantry? This is the result of our project work.” (Emp at T3) | Result | ||
| “After we went through the introduction workshop, we were convinced that coming together with managers and colleagues in co-creating improvement ideas could work for us. I am glad that we delivered our project with some creative ideas and concrete results.” (Emp at T3) | Cocreation | Brainstorming | |
| “I have already applied reverse brainstorming in team meetings. It really helps.” (Emp at T3) | LIT tool application |
| Verbatim comments | First-order code | Second-order theme | Aggregated dimension |
|---|---|---|---|
| “We want to do our best but at times our leaders do not appear to be interested in what we are doing. Sometimes I feel like a headless chicken.” (Emp at T1) | Show interest | Inspirational motivation | Transformational leadership |
| “I could feel the entire organization is involved after the 2-day LIT introduction workshop. We focus on addressing the issues rather than pointing fingers and blaming each other. We now have a collective thinking spirit.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I encourage my staff to innovate and make changes, but they will not ‘move’ unless I record it in their performance plans.” (Mgr at T1) | Sense of purpose | ||
| “I like the way my manager applies what we have learnt during the LIT, especially in scoping the issue and providing direction on how I should tackle the issue.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I think they (managers) should be informed about these processes and the importance of leadership. This is my opinion because many are very unsure about providing a vision in their job.” (Emp at T1) | Provide vision | Idealized influence | |
| “I could see that management has become more understanding and encouraging. They make things happen; it is no longer like in the past when they just paid lip service.” (Emp at T3) | Make things happen | ||
| “Talking is cheap - just issuing a memo to ask everyone to think of ways to improve our daily work won’t do.” (Emp at T1) | Communication | Individualized consideration | |
| “This way, we as leaders keep our employees motivated, and show that we care and value their views.” (Mgr at T2) | Listening | ||
| “It was only through the training and our project that we got to come together with colleagues from different departments to question and challenge each other’s work processes. And our sponsor [Manager] is aligned. He makes time to listen, gives feedback and even works with us in resolving the issues. I feel more confident now to speak up and challenge my own and my colleagues’ processes.” (Emp at T2) | Make time | ||
| “During this period of working with the team on their projects, two-way communication and timely feedback are really essential. This keeps our employees motivated and shows that we care and value their views.” (Mgr at T3) | Feedback | ||
| “I have learnt to hold quality conversations with the staff. This helps to build the foundation of our relationship. I could sense that the employees feel more comfortable with me joining them in their monthly Time for Innovation session.” (Mgr at T3) | Coaching | ||
| “I have started having dialogues with employees at various levels. Through these sessions, I get to know the employees better, and get to hear their thoughts and ideas for improving our operations and the community.” (Mgr at T3) | Relationship building | ||
| “Some of the tasks I am handling are simple, but they are just administratively complex due to the nature of our work. I have suggested to my boss to change the way we work. I hope it can happen soon.” (Emp at T1) | Initiate change | Intellectual stimulation | |
| “My manager has started a monthly ‘time for innovation’ session for us to look at our work processes and explore ways to improve. I really like this.” (Emp at T3) | |||
| “I often encourage my staff to give ideas, even if they may sound silly. However, they do not see the need to do so. They prefer to stick to the old ways.” (Mgr at T1) | Challenge status quo | ||
| “I am not creative. I am not sure I can really help. It cannot be so bad to learn a new skill though.” (Emp at T1) | Being creative | Confidence to innovate | Employee creative role identity |
| “I have difficulty in expressing my thoughts and work improvement ideas to my staff.” (Mgr at T1) | |||
| “I am not aware that innovation can be applied on our daily work. This makes a lot of sense.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “Creativity is needed at Apple. We are a government entity. How creative are we allowed to be?” (Emp at T1) | Skepticism | ||
| “If everyone is expected to give ideas at work, who is going to get things done.” (Emp at T1) | |||
| “I do not think innovation is more important than getting our work done. I am already pretty swamped with my work.” (Emp at T1) | |||
| “Innovation works in a perfect training environment but not in my real work processes.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I told you, this does not work in real life.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “Creativity is not too difficult. The tools help a lot. I love SCAMPER.” (Emp at T2) | Ease | ||
| “This was fun. And we created some nice moments of surprise. My surprise is: this can really work.” (Emp at T2) | This can work | ||
| “The staff are not speaking up their ideas unless they know it will not come across as sabotaging their colleagues.” (Mgr at T1) | Relationship with colleagues | ||
| “When my colleague broke the silence and shared her ideas, especially during the project discussion and coaching, it made me feel confident and motivated to speak up, express my ideas too even though I knew they may not be perfect.” (Emp at T3) | Self-confidence | ||
| “I think what is important is to have a certain scope for autonomy, to offer freedom - freedom in one’s own thinking.” (Mgr at T1) | Freedom to think | Show individual creativity | |
| “I do not have the knowledge and skills to innovate.” (Emp at T1) | Creativity | Idea generation | Employee innovative work behavior |
| “My staff is not creative. They often refer to me for ideas.” (Mgr at T1) | |||
| “I am surprised that I can be creative.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “I am happy with what my predecessors have set up, there is no need to change.” (Emp at T1) | Challenge status quo | ||
| “I could see that there are many processes we really need to improve. Otherwise, we will not progress as an organization.” (Emp at T2) | |||
| “We have made some major amendments in our processes. Now we need to make sure management approves and we make it stick.” (Emp at T2) | Get approval | Champion ideas | |
| “Did you see our innovation dashboard in the pantry? This is the result of our project work.” (Emp at T3) | Result | ||
| “After we went through the introduction workshop, we were convinced that coming together with managers and colleagues in co-creating improvement ideas could work for us. I am glad that we delivered our project with some creative ideas and concrete results.” (Emp at T3) | Cocreation | Brainstorming | |
| “I have already applied reverse brainstorming in team meetings. It really helps.” (Emp at T3) | LIT tool application |
Notes:
Emp: nonmanagerial employee; Mgr: Manager
Sharing content requires targeting cookies to be enabled. Please update your cookie preferences to use this feature.