THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORK ON THE INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR OF IT PROFESSIONALS: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SHARING MISTAKES?

In today’s competitive world, organizations need constant innovations in products, services and processes in order to grow and survive. Key of Innovation is in the innovative behavior of organization employees. Various factors affect the innovative behavior of the staff. The existence of a social network among the employees is one of the factors which can affect this behavior. Despite this fact, the way it affects is one of the major issues in the society of IT professionals. The aim of the research is investigating the mediatory role of sharing mistakes in the impact of social network on innovative behavior of IT professionals. In order to evaluate the research variables, a questionnaire of 18 questions has been used. This questionnaire has been distributed among 210 IT professionals in Mashhad. To analyze the data, structural equation modeling has been used. The results of this research showed that social network has positive impact on sharing mistakes. Also sharing mistakes has impact on generating and promoting ideas. In addition sharing mistakes mediates the impact of social network on generating and promoting ideas. Finally, in the conclusion of the scientific achievement of this research, one can refer to the fact that to promote and develop the IT companies in this competitive industry, innovation is needed. Innovation is created by the innovative employees. To behave innovatively, the employees should have contact through social network, yet if the social network leads the employees to share their mistakes, it would enhance the innovative behavior to a greater extent.