The relationship between virtuous leadership and innovation management in the pharmaceutical companies of the public business sector – Egypt

Purpose The current paper is aimed to explore the relationship between virtuous leadership (VL) dimensions and the dimensions of innovation management (IM) among employees in pharmaceutical companies of the public business sector – Egypt. Design/methodology/approach The current paper relied on the descriptive and analytical method and the survey paper in dealing with the paper variables. Participants for this paper consisted of (312) employees who completed a questionnaire that assessed VL and IM. Findings The results revealed that there is a positive, statistically significant relationship between VL and IM, Specifically, there is a positive effect of courage, justice and prudence on strategic innovation, a positive effect of courage, humanity and asceticism on technical innovation, and there is a positive effect of prudence, humanity and courage on management innovation. Practical implications The paper concluded that VL acts as an important tool that facilitates IM and promotes high levels of innovation for employees. Originality/value The current paper contributed to understanding the conditions in which employees of pharmaceutical companies have VL and provided additional guidance for effective practices of quality IM in pharmaceutical companies of the public business sector. In this study, a model was built to analyze the mechanism underlying the relationship between virtuous leadership and innovation management in pharmaceutical companies.