Status quosta uudistumiseen. Kvantitatiivinen tutkimus kunnallisen työntekijän ja työyhteisön sisäiseen yrittäjyyteen vaikuttavista tekijöistä

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation examines the factors affecting the intrapreneurship of the municipal employee and the work community. Intrapreneurship can be broadly defined as entrepreneurship within an existing organization. It is based on the Schumpeterian concept of entrepreneurship, emphasizing the new creative process of entrepreneurship, and its dimensions include new business, innovation, renewal and proactivity (Antoncic & Hisrich 2001). In this dissertation research, the core of intrapreneurship is renewal. Renewal is the opposite of the status quo, the existing state of affairs, where current practices are not seen as requiring change. Intrapreneurship is one way to encourage and utilize individuals in organizations who think that things can be done differently and better (Hisrich, Peters & Shepherd 2008). The conditions for intrapreneurship can also be found well in municipal organizations, as they do not differ significantly from the private sector (Heinonen & Paasio 2005). The research task of this dissertation research has been to develop a renewal model for municipal employees and work communities. The goal was to create a structural equation model which indicates the statistically significant factors for intrapreneurship on individual and collective levels. The material collected through the electronic survey includes the responses of nearly 3 000 municipal employees to the 72 statements and 16 background information questions, and the free-form comments of about 400 respondents. The representativeness of the material is good, and the results can be generalized to all employees and work communities in the Finnish municipal sector. Based on the renewal model for municipal employees and work communities developed in this doctoral dissertation research, intrapreneurship is positively affected by psychological ownership, joy of work, helping and leadership style, both on the individual and collective level. The direct effect of work community joy on intrapreneurship is negative, but through the paths of psychological ownership, joy of work and helping, the total effect of work community joy on intrapreneurship is positive. Moreover, the renewal model for municipal employee and work community is valid regardless of employee background factors such as age, gender and education level.