Public managers’ networking and innovative work behavior: the importance of career incentives

Abstract

From theories on middle managers’ entrepreneurship in private organizations, it is known that the structural network position of middle managers influences their innovative work behavior. Our study investigates if in a governmental setting, the intra-organizational networking behavior of public managers has a similar positive influence on innovative work behavior. As networking mechanisms may depend on the particular context and organizational norms, we also investigate the influence of networking motivations. According to social network research in private enterprises, social network links can be used to advance individual careers. According to public management and Public Service Motivation theories, public managers have a collective orientation aimed at producing public goods. Therefore, we investigate if, next to intra-organizational networking, an individual career motive or a collective motivation for networking explains innovative work behavior. In a case study on public managers of a municipality in Mexico City, we find a strong influence of networking on innovative work behavior. We also find support for additional influences of individual career motives, but no evidence for collective motivations. Points for practitioners Intra-organizational networking of public managers leads to increased innovative behavior in a governmental setting. In addition, when aiming at increasing innovative behavior, individual career motives seem to have stronger positive effects than collective motivations (such as teamwork-related motivations).

Sustainable HRM as a Driver for Innovative Work Behaviour: Do Respect, Openness, and Continuity Matter? The Case of Lithuania

“…As career potential is a part of employability, a positive linkage assumption could be made regarding career management and innovative work behaviour. Furthermore, Zandberg and Morales [97] found that when aiming at increasing innovative behaviour, individual career motives seem to have stronger positive effects than collective motivations (such as teamwork-related motivations). In general, career supports employee wellbeing.…”

Can human resource flexibility disentangle innovative work behavior among hospitality employees? The roles of harmonious passion and regulatory foci

“…Management scholars have focused on employees’ psychological empowerment (Rehman et al , 2019), collective motive and career motive (Zandberg and Morales, 2019) as pivotal mechanisms behind employee innovative behavior. Scholars have underlined the magnitude of passion in the hospitality service sector (Ye et al , 2019).…”

Public Health Innovation through Cloud Adoption: A Comparative Analysis of Drivers and Barriers in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore

“…Given the cloud adoption offers significant benefits to healthcare, governments should provide incentives to healthcare organizations to actively adopt cloud. Many studies including both the government and private sector consistently demonstrate that providing incentives increase innovations in any government and private organizations [ 190 , 191 , 192 ]. However, policymakers should specifically focus on medium and small hospitals, including clinics, which experience the slowest pace of cloud adoption.…”