Innovation, voice, and hierarchy in the public sector: Evidence from Ghana's civil service

Abstract

Research on innovation in government often focuses on ideas introduced by senior leaders or managers, but ideas from public servants themselves are an important and underexplored channel for improving performance in government bureaucracies. We provide new evidence on the potential for bottom‐up work process innovation, using data from 744 individual and team innovation plans and 51 qualitative interviews in Ghana's civil service. In contrast to common negative stereotypes of developing country bureaucrats, most officials do have meaningful ideas for improving performance. However, the overwhelming constraint to voicing these ideas is hostility by supervisors to new ideas from their subordinates. We argue that this anecdotally common yet understudied behavior is consistent with theories of psychological attachment to hierarchy rather than alternative theories rooted in material, structural, or cultural resistance to employee voice and innovation. We discuss implications for bottom‐up work process innovation in government and interventions to promote it.

Leadership and innovative work behaviour within Ghanaian metropolitan assemblies: mediating role of resource supply

“…First, public servants in most countries have a high perception of IWB as extra-role behaviours, beyond their official work description, which requires some form of assurance and reward to engage in (Yuan and Woodman, 2010; Bysted and Jespersen, 2014). Secondly, the evidence of widespread supervisorial hostility towards subordinate's promotive voice and innovative ideas in the Ghanaian public sector (Williams and Yecalo-Tecle, 2020) could explain why supervisors' transactional leadership behaviours are essential in stimulating IWB (Pieterse et al , 2010).…”

“…Yet, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have hardly maintained high level of public service delivery. Performance shortfalls and the inability to be innovative and implement reforms successfully have been attributed partly to the nature of relationships between supervisors and their subordinates within the assemblies (Armah-Attoh, 2015; Williams and Yecalo-Tecle, 2020). For instance, a review of the Ghanaian civil service showed widespread supervisorial hostility to subordinates promotive voice and innovative ideas (Williams and Yecalo-Tecle, 2020).…”

“…Performance shortfalls and the inability to be innovative and implement reforms successfully have been attributed partly to the nature of relationships between supervisors and their subordinates within the assemblies (Armah-Attoh, 2015; Williams and Yecalo-Tecle, 2020). For instance, a review of the Ghanaian civil service showed widespread supervisorial hostility to subordinates promotive voice and innovative ideas (Williams and Yecalo-Tecle, 2020). This is an important finding because leaders' behaviours have overarching implications for employees' actions.…”

Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2021: Data, Digitalization, and Governance

“…Bureaucratic conservatism may also constrain the broader use of data in the public sector. Mission-oriented employees in the public sector are often less likely to adopt new practices, because they have a predefined set of missions or beliefs, making organizational change more challenging (Williams and Yecalo-Tecle 2020). Management of these classical characteristics of the public institutions is a crucial determinant of whether public officials capitalize on the data revolution (Arizti and others 2020).…”

Social and Political Issues on Sustainable Development in the Post Covid-19 Crisis

“…Therefore, public sector innovation needs to involve collaboration between the government and other parties (Chen et al 2020;Liang et al 2018) in which there is an integration of the use of information technology so that community needs in strategic fields such as economic and social arenas can be fulfilled (Wipulanusat et al 2020) or in the form of a digital society (Demircioglu & Berman 2019). In Ghana, a bottom-up approach driven by civil society has succeeded in making public service innovations (Williams & Yecalo-Tecle 2020).…”