Organizational Support for Creativity and Employees’ Innovative Behaviours in Tertiary Institutions in Delta State, Nigeria

This study examined the relationship between organizational support for creativity and employees’ innovative behaviours in tertiary institutions in Delta State, Nigeria. Organizational encouragement for creativity (OEC), supervisory encouragement for creativity (SEC) and work group support (WGS) were used as the measures of organizational support. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was adopted and primary data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to the entire population of 152 academic staff in the faculties of administration and management of Southern Delta University, Ozoro; Dennis Osadebay University, Asaba; and Federal Polytechnic, Orogun, of whom 139 (91.4%) returned usable copies. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. The results show that OEC (β = 0.8592, t = 16.16, p < 0.001; R2 = 0.6889), SEC (β = 0.8436, t = 18.83, p < 0.001; R2 = 0.7502) and WGS (β = 1.0163, t = 17.30, p < 0.001; R2 = 0.7173) each have a positive and statistically significant relationship with employees’ innovative behaviours. SEC explained the largest share of the variation in innovative behaviours, while WGS recorded the largest coefficient per unit of support. The study recommends that tertiary institutions in Delta State adopt formal policies that encourage creativity, provide creative resources and innovation-focused training, train supervisors to recognise and support staff creativity, and build collaborative work groups.

Keywords: organizational encouragement for creativity; supervisory encouragement for creativity; work group support; innovative behaviour; tertiary institutions; Delta State.