Managing for innovation in local government: three core strategic factors.

• Author: Gabris, Gerald T.

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Attempting to replicate an innovation in your finance system because it ostensibly works elsewhere might be less important than creating an environment within your management system that consistently encourages and reinforces innovative thinking. Based on a growing body of empirical research and theory, three strategic factors appear to be crucial for enhancing the innovation management capacity of local government: leadership credibility, team management, and a well-functioning governing board. Evidence indicates that local governments that practice and emphasize these factors within their administrative systems experience a significant frequency of innovations that are perceived as highly effective ("innovation" is the introduction of something new or different with the intent of maintaining or increasing system effectiveness).

LEADERSHIP CREDIBILITY

The subject of leadership has received considerable attention within the public sector in recent years. One theory that appears to possess ample research support and clarity is the leadership credibility model. This model, originally developed by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book, The Leadership Challenge, (1) stresses that leadership skills and behaviors can be learned, practiced, and used to improve organizational performance. Leaders can transform their organizations if they achieve a high level of credibility with their followers. How is this done? Leaders establish a vision of where they wish to go and then communicate that vision to followers in a way that uplifts and motivates, causing followers to accept and embrace the vision as their own. Leaders continuously strive to increase trust between themselves and their followers by making themselves vulnerable to risks and by delegating power to followers who are responsible for specific work objectives. Leaders also practice what they preach and model the way for others--in short, they take ownership of their behavior and live by the same rules and values they expect of others. Finally, credible leaders openly recognize the high performance of others and celebrate their accomplishments.

Leaders who master these skills and behaviors become leaders of integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, and believability Followers believe in such leaders and accept their visions for change and innovation. This is crucial for innovation to really work and become accepted by the rank and file of a local government organization. Fundamentally. the senior managers (e.g., city managers, city administrators, and department heads) need to possess high leadership credibility if they want others to openly embrace change and innovation. Why, for example, should employees accept some new innovation, especially if it might involve more work and risk for them, when the finance director has low leadership credibility?

The leadership credibility characteristics of senior managers can be measured and assessed through survey instruments, and managers can learn where they might have specific leadership deficiencies that lower their overall credibility. Managers can also learn how to improve their credibility through training. Increasing leadership credibility is a win-win situation for the organization and its leaders. Innovations recommended by senior managers actually become accepted and practiced by followers in a meaningful way, and thus flow down the hierarchy and become part of the organization's culture and operations. And managers receive positive reinforcement by knowing that their attempt to bring change to the system has been effective.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

Even before In Search of Excellence (2) became a national best seller in the 1980s, the idea that organizations using a team approach to management were often more productive than those structured along strict bureaucratic lines was an accepted principle in organization development. Highly respected organization theorists have made a strong case for the team model, (3) and more recent work further reinforces these earlier arguments and findings? But what is team...