Samenvatting

Decentralisations have devolved many responsibilities in the domains of health and social care in the Netherlands to municipalities. These decentralisations aim at facilitating innovative and personalized solutions for pressing social issues. Professionals are expected to develop social innovations to provide personalized care. These goals require them to work together in an interprofessional setting to attain social innovations consisting of both the exploration of new and useful ideas and the exploitation of current processes. This study examines the extent to which psychological safety and innovative leadership behaviours of team leaders can promote innovation in social support teams. Drawing on data from 833 professionals and 62 leaders of social support teams in five different municipalities, this study shows that the combination of psychological safety and innovative leadership behaviours of team leaders is positively associated with social innovation in the form of exploration but not exploitation. As such, this study informs us about the boundary conditions of leadership in promoting social innovation. Recommendations are made to encourage leaders to implement practices to increase psychological safety and encourage social innovation in their teams.