Leadership in the collaborative innovation process in the public sector: an integrative review

Abstract

Increasingly interconnected contemporary societies face complex problems that impact people’s lives and demand collaborative innovative solutions. In the public sector, managers have shown a growing interest in collaboration to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative solutions. Despite this, the field of research on the role of leadership in this process is still incipient. This work aims to build a synthesis of the literature on the role of leaders in collaborative innovation processes in the public sector. The generation of a thematic map reveals two macro themes - roles and actions of leaders - associated with six themes: meta-governance, three-dimensional performance, observing basic requirements, restructuring the organization, overcoming obstacles, and exploring the drivers. This framework outlines how public leaders can act to engage in the development of more effective collaborative innovations for society. To review the evidence, it is also recommended that the profile of public leaders indicated to stimulate collaborative innovation processes to be more proactive and less attached to formalisms, should act as a meta-governor to convene, orchestrate, facilitate, regulate, mediate, and catalyze the processes of innovation.