Scale library · HRM & organizational behavior
Innovative work behavior scale: Janssen (2000)
Janssen (2000) defines innovative work behavior as employees intentionally creating, introducing and applying new ideas in their job, group or organization to improve performance. The 9-item scale covers the three stages of innovation equally: idea generation, idea promotion and idea realization. It is the most cited measure of innovative behavior and a common dependent variable in theses on transformational leadership, psychological empowerment and knowledge sharing, for example Nguyen et al. (2020) with telecom employees.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: IWB
- Constructs: 3
- Items: 9
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Idea Generation (IG, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| IG1 | Creating new ideas for difficult issues. | No |
| IG2 | Searching out new working methods, techniques, or instruments. | No |
| IG3 | Generating original solutions for problems. | No |
Idea Promotion (IP, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| IP1 | Mobilizing support for innovative ideas. | No |
| IP2 | Acquiring approval for innovative ideas. | No |
| IP3 | Making important organizational members enthusiastic for innovative ideas. | No |
Idea Realization (IR, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| IR1 | Transforming innovative ideas into useful applications. | No |
| IR2 | Introducing innovative ideas into the work environment in a systematic way. | No |
| IR3 | Evaluating the utility of innovative ideas. | No |
Response scale
7-point frequency scale (1 = Never … 7 = Always); respondents say how often they perform each behavior, as used by Letouche and Wille (2022). Many studies switch to a 5-point agreement scale, for example Nguyen et al. (2020).
Licence and permission
The items are published in an academic article and reproduced in many open-access articles; we found no specific terms of use from the author. Cite Janssen (2000).
Sources (APA 7)
- Albort-Morant, G., Ariza-Montes, A., Leal-Rodríguez, A., & Giorgi, G. (2020). How does positive work-related stress affect the degree of innovation development? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(2), 520. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020520
- Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
- Janssen, O. (2000). Job demands, perceptions of effort-reward fairness and innovative work behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 73(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317900167038
- Letouche, S., & Wille, B. (2022). Connecting the dots: Exploring psychological network analysis as a tool for analyzing organizational survey data. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 838093. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.838093
- Nguyen, T. P. L., Tran, N. M., Doan, X. H., & Nguyen, V. H. (2020). The impact of knowledge sharing on innovative work behavior of Vietnam telecommunications enterprises employees. Management Science Letters, 10, 53–62. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.8.016
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.