Employees’ Participation and Innovative Work Behaviour in Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania

Abstract

This article investigates the influence of employees’ participation on innovative work behaviour in manufacturing SMEs in Tanzania. Specifically, the article examines the influence of employees’ participation on creativity-oriented innovative work behaviour and the influence of employees’ participation on implementation-oriented innovative work behaviour. The study applied the Structural Equation Modelling to analyze data elicited from three hundred and eight nine (389) respondents. The investigation results revealed that, employees’ participation has a significant positive influence on both creativity oriented innovative work behaviour and implementation oriented innovative work behaviour. This finding accentuate the importance of employees participation in influencing innovative work behavior in manufacturing SMEs in Tanzania. The article recommends that managers of SMEs in Tanzania should involve employees directly on issues connected with the production, processes and service delivery. Theoretically, the study results proved the applicability of the Social Exchange Theory in the Tanzanian context and the results provide insights that may be used for development of effective public policies, particularly the ones related to SMEs and entrepreneurship development in Tanzania.

Keywords: Employees‘ participation, Innovative work behaviour, Creativity oriented innovative work behaviour and Implementation oriented innovative work behaviour.