Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Department

Bisk College of Business

First Advisor

Abram Walton

Second Advisor

Charles Bryant

Third Advisor

Alexander Vamosi

Fourth Advisor

Gary Burns

Abstract

Innovation is often a competitive advantage generator, growth, and organizational success. However, there is relatively little empirical literature that describes how organizations may be designed such that employees also feel significant freedom to innovate. This dissertation investigates the role of psychological safety and organizational design conditions, perceived organizational structure and perceived organizational rigidity as joint predictors of perceived freedom to innovate (PFTI) of employees.

The quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used to gather data of 425 full-time U.S.-based employees who were recruited through CloudResearch. Respondents undertook validated scales of psychological safety, perceived organizational structure, perceived organizational rigidity and perceived freedom to innovate. Several tests were conducted to test hypotheses with multiple regression, moderation and mediation tests and structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapped indirect effects.

Findings showed that psychological safety had a significant positive relationship with the perception of freedom to innovate. The main effects were also significant in the case of organizational structure and organizational rigidity, and each of them partly mediated the connection between psychological safety and the perceived freedom to innovate. Conversely, the interaction terms which could have tested moderation by structure and rigidity were not significant, indicating that the influence of these organizational conditions on perceived freedom to innovate occur, as well, through additive and indirect means, and not through the reinforcement or disenfranchisement of the psychological safety-innovation relationship. In general, the joint model explained perceived freedom to innovate variance with about 61% (R² ≈ .61).

These results provide an extension of the research on psychological safety and innovation climate by showing that the perceived freedom of employees to innovate is an interpersonal climate and organizational structure. In practice, the findings indicate that organizations that aim to achieve innovations driven by employees ought to instill an environment that is psychologically safe, as well as create designs that support autonomy and minimize unneeded rigidity.

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