Public sector innovation and innovation capacity have gained increased attention in research and policy in recent decades, but empirical knowledge is still limited. This article focuses on initiatives to systematically support innovation in the public sector, with the aim of exploring challenges related to the organisation of innovation support in Swedish municipalities. The study is based on three case studies of municipal innovation support operations and 23 qualitative interviews with participants within these operations. The findings show how different innovation support strategies were chosen, ranging from suggestion box setups to idea coaching and training using service design methodology. Regardless of strategy, the initiatives faced challenges related to a lack of direction on what to innovate and implementation phases not being part of the innovation support. Other challenges related to managers being involved too late in the innovation processes and difficulties securing a commitment to work with innovation within the organisation. These findings point to both the general challenges of supporting change in organisations and the specific challenges of introducing innovation and setting up innovation support in public sector organisations.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine learning and employee-driven innovation (EDI) in the public sector, with a particular focus on the interplay between employee engagement and organisational conditions. Design/methodology/approach The material consists of qualitative interviews with 23 participants from three municipal sites of innovation support that participated in a national programme aiming to strengthen municipalities’ innovation work. Findings The study found numerous constraining organisational conditions resulting in consequential loss of employee engagement for EDI. The conclusion drawn is that employee engagement and enabling organisational conditions are central to EDI in public sector workplaces, and that incorporating EDI into municipal daily operations requires paying attention to the interplay between organisational conditions and employee engagement. Originality/value This paper provides important guidance for supporting EDI in the public sector. Implementing EDI into operations requires employee engagement to be successful. However, employees’ engagement should not be overlooked or taken for granted. A practical implication of this study is that EDI in the workplace must be encouraged by creating a learning environment that supports innovative learning in the workplace. In practice, measures should be taken to support employee engagement by creating organisational conditions that provide a more expansive learning environment to ensure the continuity and perpetuation of EDI in public sector organisations.

Over the past few years, public policy interventions have been initiated to promote public sector innovation. These top-down initiatives have been aimed at generating bottom-up movement, and first-line managers are believed to play an important role in this transformation. However, little is known about the challenges first-line managers face in their role as agents of change. This article therefore explores the expectations and conditions that first-line managers face when innovation support is implemented in municipalities. The article draws on 23 interviews with participants from three Swedish cases where innovation support has been implemented in the municipal context. The findings reveal that a multitude of expectations pointing towards an explorative logic are placed on first-line managers to lead, dare and support in connection with employee-driven innovation, but the conditions under which they operate point towards an exploitative logic. The managers find themselves wedged between high expectations and a lack of mandate, resources and organisational support for workplace innovation in the public sector context.

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The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute knowledge about employee-driven innovation (EDI), with a particular focus on conditions in the workplace when innovation support is introduced in municipal contexts. The thesis is based on 23 qualitative interviews with managers, employees, and innovation coaches from three municipal sites in Sweden where innovation support has been implemented. The four included studies examine how innovation support is set up, what role first-line managers play, what drives employees to engage in EDI, and the outcomes of innovation work in the studied cases.The thesis' results show how innovation support was set up as parallel structures operating independently from regular municipal operations, which made it difficult for employees and managers to connect and integrate innovation work with everyday work. Furthermore, the results show how the studied municipalities did not define clear objectives for working with innovation, which in turn resulted in a multitude of inextricably linked negative effects for the innovation support operations, the managers, the employees, and the outcome of the innovation work. In addition, the study results demonstrate the importance of providing rich environments for learning and innovation in the workplace, to consider and support employee engagement in public sector innovation and to support the entire innovation process, including the implementation phase.The first conclusion drawn is that employee-driven innovation work happens at the intersection of innovation support and current workplace conditions. This implies that support measures need to be integrated into employees' everyday work to create favourable conditions for EDI. The second conclusion is that it is imperative for municipal organisations intending to support EDI to define objectives for working with innovation and to anchor and communicate these objectives throughout the organisation.