Scholars have proposed that visionary leadership can be a particularly effective tool to motivate follower innovation. However, while they have also long recognized that autonomy is essential for individuals engaged in innovative activities, the role of autonomy for those who aim to guide others toward innovation has so far been overlooked. In this research, we draw on the respective literatures on visionary leadership and innovation to argue that the extent to which leaders can use visionary leadership to motivate innovation depends on the degree to which leaders have the autonomy to make important decisions themselves. In a three-wave, supervisor-employee field study and an experimental vignette study, we find support for our prediction that visionary leadership can promote follower extra effort and, in turn, innovation, but that these links are contingent on the leader’s decision-making autonomy – that is, the leader’s latitude to make important decisions. Overall, our research identifies an important contingency factor for visionary leadership’s ability to motivate follower innovation by showing that such leadership is more effective when leaders have higher, rather than lower, decision-making autonomy.
