Nurturing Intrapreneurship to Enhance Job Performance: The Role of Pro-Intrapreneurship Organizational Architecture

Abstract

Following the needs to ingrain intrapreneurial spirit among Malaysian workforce, as highlighted in the National Economic Advisory 2010, the aim of this study is to identify the organizational architecture that can be designed to foster such behaviour which could subsequently lead to better job performance. Specifically, this study examines the effects of five dimensions of pro-intrapreneurship organizational architecture; namely, "management support", "work discretion", "reward and reinforcement", "organizational boundaries" and "time availability" on intrapreneurial behaviour which was then regressed to the job performance. A sample of 263 employees consisting of engineers and managers working in multinational companies participated in this study. The findings were tested using structural equation modeling procedure. In general, the results indicate that except for "organizational boundaries", other organizational architecture namely "management support", "work discretion", "reward and reinforcement" and "time availability" were found to have positive significant effects on intrapreneurship. In addition, intrapreneurial behaviour is found to be positively related to job performance. In short, it can be surmised forming an internal ecosystem that is conducive for the workforce to behave intrapreneurially is a wise step to foster innovativeness culture that could subsequently be translated into a long term growth and sustainability of the organization.