Curiosity as a Tool in Promoting Sustainable Development through Innovative Behaviour

In this chapter, curiosity is explored as a potential ‘tool’ to strengthen the organisation’s sustainable development, focusing specifically on employee innovation to reflect the economic dimension of an organisation’s sustainable development. Curiosity is a motivational state that activates a person’s exploratory intention in a specific work role. Curiosity is studied in relationship to two types of work roles: leadership and employee. On a leadership level, curiosity is reflected in a practice where curiosity is explicitly displayed in interactions with organisational members, labelled as leadership display of curiosity. In contrast, curiosity on employee levels is manifested in the level of curiosity regarding a specific work role that the employees possess. It is assumed to be a link between a leadership display of curiosity and individual employees’ level of work curiosity. Specifically, the chapter explores, using data collected among hospitality organisations, whether leadership displays of curiosity can arouse individual employees’ curiosity and job engagement and how these are linked to employees’ innovative behaviour, reflecting the sustainable development in respective work roles. The chapter offers theoretical and practical implications.