Learn in Order to Innovate: An Exploration of Individual and Team Learning as Antecedents of Innovative Work Behaviours in Ghanaian Technical Universities

Abstract

Ghanaian higher education is continuously transforming, and teachers are constantly encouraged to innovate and change. We test a mediated-moderation model that assesses interplays among individual learning (IL), team learning (TL), gender, and innovative work behaviours (IWB) in a sample of 487 lecturers from six technical universities in Ghana. Results suggest that team learning mediates the influence of individual learning on IWB, and gender moderates the remaining direct association between individual learning and IWB such that individual learning appears conducive to IWB among men but not women. This study encourages focusing on team learning to drive knowledge-sharing within and across faculties to generate sustainable innovative outcomes, and it points to ways in which higher education managers and human resources practitioners can invest in human resources to enhance IWB and, subsequently, performance in higher education.