Abstract

Purpose - This study aims to examine the impact of leadership on organizational trust and innovation performance, and to identify whether organizational trust plays a mediating role in the relationship between leadership and innovation performance. Also, this study attempts to find out how to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness based on leadership-based or trust-based strategies. And, this research proposed that organizational trust plays a core mediating role in the relationship between transactional and transformational leadership and innovation performance. Research design, data, and methodology - In order to test the hypotheses of this study, the survey was conducted towards franchise coffee shop employees between November 7 and 18, 2016. We contacted top executives of coffee shop franchise headquarters and explained the purpose of this study. Among 150 questionnaires distributed, 123 were collected. Of these collected questionnaires, 102 questionnaires were coded and analyzed for further analysis. In order to test the unidimensionality and reliability of the factors, factor analysis and reliability test were performed using SPSS/PC+ 22.0. And, the hypotheses were tested using hierarchical mediated regression analysis. Result - The results are as follows. First, transactional leadership, and intellectual stimulation, motivation of transformational leadership had significant impacts on organizational trust. Second, organizational trust, transactional leadership, and influence of transformational leadership had significant impacts on innovation performance. Third, the mediating test of organizational trust showed that transactional leadership plays a partial mediator, and intellectual of transformational leadership plays a full mediator in the relationship between leadership and innovation performance. Conclusions - The implications of this study are as follows. First, the top management should provide their organizational members incentives or rewards based on their performance. Second, top management should identify and express a clear vision and desirable organizational goals for the future, present an idealized vision, and communicate to organizational members that the vision is achievable, also have organizational members to think creatively and find optimal solutions to difficult problems. In sum, this study revealed the important role of leadership in embedding organizational trust in and improving innovation performance of coffee shop employees and the mediating role of organizational trust in the influence of leadership on innovation performance.