Innovative work behaviors and networking across government
| Author | Mehmet Akif Demircioglu,Taha Hameduddin,Colin Knox |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211017654 |
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Innovative work
behaviors and
networking across
government
Mehmet Akif Demircioglu
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Taha Hameduddin
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Colin Knox
Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan
Abstract
Public organizations have long faced pressures to become more innovative and entre-
preneurial. This has been accompanied by a shift from traditional bureaucratic struc-
tures toward public management networks, both in scholarship and practice. We use
the example of the Australian public service and its emphasis on increased networking
to examine whether increased networking behavior is associated with greater innova-
tive work behaviors. In developing our theoretical model, we hypothesize that net-
working activities are positively related to innovative work behaviors but that too few
or too many networked actors are negatively associated with inn ovative work behav-
iors. Our analysis finds that networking practices are, indeed, associated with greater
levels of innovative work behaviors but that they differ between the type of stake-
holders public managers engage with. In addition, we find only limited evidence of a
curvilinear relationship between these two constructs. The article ends with implica-
tions for research and practice.
Corresponding author:
Mehmet Akif Demircioglu, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Email: mehmet@nus.edu.sg
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
!The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/00208523211017654
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
2023, Vol. 89(1) 145–164
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Points for practitioners
Public organizations around the world are under pressure to become more innovative
and collaborative. This is especially the case in the Australian public service. One way to
achieve innovation is to encourage innovative work behaviors. We find that increased
networking by public managers is associated with higher levels of innovative work
behaviors. Contrary to our hypotheses, we find limited evidence of a cur vilinear rela-
tionship between networking and innovative work behaviors, that is, too little or too
much networking was not associated with reduced innovative work behaviors.
Keywords
collaboration, innovative work behavior, networking, public organization, public sector
innovation
Introduction
Public organizations have long faced demands to be more innovative. Particularly,
New Public Management (NPM) reforms emphasized “doing more with less”
(Barzelay, 2001; Kettl, 2005; Van der Wal, 2017) by allowing public sector man-
agers greater discretion to empower employees to encourage innovation, with
mixed results (Hood and Dixon, 2013; Kettl, 2005; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2017).
While manager discretion in NPM reforms (e.g. rewarding or sanctioning employ-
ees for performance) may work in business settings, scholars have questioned its
efficacy in the public sector, with some citing the potential of motivation crowding
out (Rainey, 2009) or reduced employee motivation and job satisfaction (Rainey,
2009; Yang and Kassekert, 2010).
Wagenaar and Wood (2018: 154) described NPM itself as “as good an example
as any of a public innovation ... arguably the most significant and widespread
innovation of the last 30 years.” NPM nurtured structural (public–private partner-
ships and contracting out) and administrative innovations, such as total quality
management, the balanced scorecard, and matrix management (Li and Chun,
2020). The transfer of private sector practices directly associated with NPM,
such as the promotion of entrepreneurialism and competition, became a driver
for public sector innovation. At the level of the individual official, NPM offered
opportunities for greater decision-making autonomy, which stimulated innovation
within an ever-increasing panoply of networks (Palmi et al., 2020). In short, the
burgeoning networks synonymous with public management provided the context
for the implementation of innovations (O’Toole, 1997). The specific link between
NPM reforms and organizational innovation has been tested empirically. Hijal-
Moghrabi et al. (2020), using data from five US states, found that market mech-
anisms and customer responsiveness in service delivery will be pivotal in driving
innovation in the future.
146 International Review of Administrative Sciences 89(1)
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