The Effects of Innovation Climate on Employee Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment: Findings from Public Organizations

• Author: Mehmet Akif Demircioglu
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X211043559
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X211043559

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2023, Vol. 43(1) 130 –158

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X211043559

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Article

The Effects of Innovation

Climate on Employee Job

Satisfaction and Affective

Commitment: Findings

from Public Organizations

Mehmet Akif Demircioglu1

Abstract

This article tests the effects of innovation climate on two major employee attitudes,

employee job satisfaction and affective commitment, using 2017 Australian Public

Service Commission (APSC) data (n = 83,943). The Australian Public Service (APS)

is a suitable context because the APS prioritizes and is con cerned with b oth

innovative activities and employee attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction and affective

commitment). To develop hypotheses, this study applies insights from different

theories, including perceived organizational support (POS), self-determination

theory (SDT), empowerment, employee engagement, and job engagement. The

empirical results of the structural equation models (along with robustness checks)

demonstrate that innovation climate has a statistically significant and positive

effect on both job satisfaction and affective commitment and that job satisfaction

positively mediates this relationship. For policy makers, these findings suggest an

innovation climate can be an important tool to increase employee job satisfaction

and commitment.

Keywords

public sector innovation, innovation climate, affective commitment, job satisfaction,

public organizations

1National University of Singapore, Singapore

Corresponding Author:

Mehmet Akif Demircioglu, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore,

469C Bukit Timah Road, Oei Tiong Ham Building, Singapore 259771.

Email: mehmet@nus.edu.sg

1043559ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X211043559Review of Public Personnel AdministrationDemircioglu

research-article2021

Demircioglu 131

Introduction

The expanding knowledge base on public sector innovation suggests innovative activ-

ities in public organizations can play an important role in government, society, and

business. Innovation can increase public organizations’ legitimacy, trust, and effi-

ciency. In addition to improving efficiency and organizational processes, innovation

can be a remedy for macro-economic issues and may have positive spillover effects to

other sectors, such as increasing the competitiveness of the private sector through

changes in government processes (see Borins, 2014; Demircioglu & Audretsch, 2017;

de Vries et al., 2018; Kattel et al., 2013; Leyden & Link, 1992; Moore, 2005; Newnham,

2018; Walker, 2014; Wipulanusat et al., 2018).

At the organizational level, as Nasi and colleagues state, innovative activities in

public organizations are crucial because public agencies need “to cope with wicked

societal challenges and an increasing demand for high-quality public services, while

facing a reduction of available resources” (Nasi et al., 2015, 111). Recent systematic

reviews for public sector innovation (e.g., de Vries et al., 2018) and barriers to innova-

tion (Cinar et al., 2019) reflect the importance of innovative activities in public orga-

nizations, as innovation increases organizational performance. Nevertheless, a crucial

gap in these studies is that innovation, or innovative activity, is studied as a behavior

in terms of implementation but not as an attitude in terms of the climate of innovation,

which is more associated with studies of organizational behavior (OB) and human

resource management (HRM). More specifically, a major gap in the literature is that

studies of innovation do not typically link to work in OB and HRM. This study, in

contrast, analyzes the effects of innovation climate on two major employee attitudes

central to HRM: employee job satisfaction and affective commitment.

There are different understandings and thus measures of innovative activities in the

public sector. For example, research has focused on a variety of innovative activities,

including open government innovations (e.g., Grimmelikhuijsen & Feeney, 2017;

Hameduddin et al., 2020; Mergel & Desouza, 2013), social media use in governments

(Demircioglu, 2018; Fusi & Feeney, 2018; Oliveira & Welch, 2013), and public sector

entrepreneurship (Singla et al., 2018); specific types of innovation such as process

(e.g., Walker, 2014) and technological innovation (e.g., Welch & Pandey, 2005); and

differences between radical and continuous innovations (Moore, 2005) in the public

sector.

The focus of this study is on innovation climate, a concept distinct from other

innovative activities1 (e.g., the adoption of innovations such as open government

innovations). Innovation climate is an employee attitude or employee perception of

organizational and leadership support for innovation, as well as whether employees

are encouraged, inspired, and recognized for coming up with new ideas (Demircioglu

& Berman, 2019; Lee et al., 2014; Popa et al., 2017; Ren & Zhang, 2015). Innovative

activities and different OB and HRM practices are highly related, such that effective

leadership, commitment, and inclusion can positively impact employees’ innovative-

ness (Brimhall, 2021) and innovation climate (Ashikali et al., 2020). Innovative activi-

ties can also impact HRM practices such as employee empowerment, employee