Abstract
The literature is relatively silent in addressing design leadership in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) simultaneously in various industry workplaces across the globe. This comparative study draws on employees in SME leadership roles across three Western countries to investigate the relationships between design leadership, work values ethic, and workplace innovation. Based on a sample of 1,573 survey responses, the findings indicate that design leadership has a strong effect on workplace innovation, whereas work values ethic has a positive but insignificant effect on workplace innovation. In addition, a positive work ethic has a moderate effect on design leadership (f2 = +0.207) and a negative work ethic has a negative and insignificant effect on design leadership (f2 = -0.001). In summary, the findings indicate a positive association between work values ethic, design leadership, and workplace innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises across the three Western countries of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
