Understanding public sector innovations: the role of leadership activities for a climate for innovation

Abstract

Innovations are considered to be crucial for the success of public organizations. However, it is not a foregone conclusion that public organizations are innovative. This study is based on the leadership and innovation literature to consider whether team level leadership activities could be associated to an innovative climate which, consequently, may enhance public organizations’ innovative capacity. More specifically, this study analyses to which extent rule-following and empowering leadership activities may affect five distinctive dimensions of an innovative climate. In order to reduce common method bias, this study conducted two different surveys in a public organization. The first survey measured team level leadership activities while the second survey measured an innovative climate four weeks later. Limited in line with our hypothesis, rule-following leadership activities partly disturb an innovative climate, as only the dimensions participative safety and interaction frequency were negatively influenced by those leadership activities. In addition, statistical support was found for the assumed positive relationship between empowering leadership activities and an innovative climate, as all dimensions were positively influenced by those leadership activities. So, rule-following leadership activities limited interfere with an innovative climate whereas empowering leadership activities strongly foster an innovative climate in the selected public organization.