How Leadership and Public Service Motivation Enhance Innovative Behavior

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12839
• Author: Qing Miao,Brian Cooper,Gary Schwarz,Alexander Newman
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• Date: 01 January 2018

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited 71

and is not used for commercial purposes.

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 78, Iss. 1, pp. 71–81. © 2017 The Authors.

Public Administration Review published

by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of

American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12839.

The copyright line for this article was changed

on 25 July 2018 after original online publication.

Gary Schwarz is associate professor

of public policy and management at

SOAS University of London. He has been

a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School

and authored the book

Public Shared

Service Centers

:

A Theoretical and Empirical

Analysis of U.S. Public Sector Organizations

(Springer, 2014). His articles on leadership

and performance in the public sector

have appeared in journals such as

Public

Administration

.

E-mail: gary.schwarz@soas.ac.uk

Alexander Newman is professor

of management at Deakin University,

Australia. He has published widely in the

areas of leadership, entrepreneurship, and

organizational psychology in journals such

as

Leadership Quarterly, Entrepreneurship

Theory and Practice, Public Administration,

and the

Journal of Applied Psychology

.

E-mail: a.newman@deakin.edu.au

Qing Miao is professor of public

management in the School of Public Affairs,

Zhejiang University, China. His research

focuses on leadership effectiveness in

the public context and the emerging

phenomenon of social entrepreneurship in

China. His work has appeared in journals

such as

Public Administration, Leadership

Quarterly,

and the

Journal of Applied

Psychology

.

E-mail: mqok@163.com

Abstract : Prior research has linked the innovative behavior of public sector employees to desirable outcomes such as

improved efficiency and higher public service quality. However, questions regarding the drivers of innovative behavior

among employees have received limited attention. This article employs psychological empowerment theory to examine

the underlying processes by which entrepreneurial leadership and public service motivation (PSM) shape innovative

behavior among civil servants. Based on three-wave data from 281 Chinese civil servants and their 59 department

heads, entrepreneurial leadership is found to positively influence subordinates ’ innovative behavior by enhancing

two dimensions of psychological empowerment: meaning and impact. Additionally, PSM was found to influence

subordinates ’ innovative behavior by enhancing the dimensions of meaning and competence. These findings suggest

that to facilitate innovative behavior among employees, public organizations should consider introducing training that

encourages leaders to serve as entrepreneurial role models and recruit employees with high levels of PSM.

Evidence for Practice

• Public managers can spur innovative behavior among their subordinates by acting as entrepreneurial role

models.

• Entrepreneurial leadership was found to positively influence employees ’ innovative behavior by enhancing

their feelings of meaning and impact.

• PSM was found to positively influence employees ’ innovative behavior by enhancing their feelings of

meaning and competence.

• To facilitate innovative behavior in public sector employees, organizations should introduce training that

stresses the importance of leaders who act entrepreneurially and encourage subordinates to identify and

exploit entrepreneurial opportunities in the workplace.

Qing Miao

Zhejiang University

Alexander Newman

Deakin University

Gary Schwarz

SOAS University of London

Brian Cooper

Monash University

How Leadership and Public Service Motivation

Enhance Innovative Behavior

T he “innovation imperative” for public

organizations arises because of both external

and internal pressures ( Jordan 2014 ). Changes

in the external environment, such as increasingly

scarce resources, rising citizen expectations for

more responsive and accountable government,

and deliberate internal choices aimed at reducing

performance gaps in the pursuit of higher service

levels, require innovation ( Walker 2008 ). Despite a

stream of studies on public sector innovation from

the mid-1970s to 1990 (e.g., Perry and Kraemer

1979 ) and a recent surge in interest in this topic

(e.g., Fernandez and Moldogaziev 2013b ), Hartley,

Sørensen, and Torfing noted that “there seems to

be considerable disagreement about how to spur

and sustain public innovation” (2013, 821). Given

that innovation in public sector organizations has

been linked to improved effectiveness, efficiency,

and citizen involvement, it is important to analyze

the factors that elicit innovative behavior in public

servants ( Salge and Vera 2012 ). However, few studies

have investigated the antecedents of employees ’

innovative behavior in public sector organizations

( Bysted and Hansen 2015 ).

Using three waves of data from multiple informants

within Chinese public sector agencies in six

Chinese cities, the present article examines whether

entrepreneurial leadership, defined as a leadership

style that influences and directs subordinates toward

the achievement of organizational goals that involve

the identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial

opportunities (Renko et al. 2015), is effective at

promoting the engagement of subordinates in

innovative behavior in the workplace. Drawing on

psychological empowerment theory ( Spreitzer 1995 ),

which suggests that leaders play an important role

in shaping employees ’ subjective perceptions of

their work, we argue that by acting as role models

for employees and furnishing them with support in

Brian Cooper is associate professor at

Monash University, Australia. His research

interests include the relationship between

high-performance work practices, employee

attitudes, and employee behaviors. He

has published in leading journals such as

Public Administration

and

Human Resource

Management

.

E-mail: brian.cooper@monash.edu