Public managers’ networking and innovative work behavior: the importance of career incentives
| Author | Fernando Nieto Morales,Tjeerd Zandberg |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852317692138 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Public managers’ networking and
innovative work behavior: the
importance of career incentives
Tjeerd Zandberg
Stenden University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Fernando Nieto Morales
El Colegio de Me
´xico, Mexico
Abstract
From theories on middle managers’ entrepreneurship in private organizations, it is
known that the structural network position of middle managers influences their innova-
tive 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 net-
work 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-organiza-
tional 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).
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2019, Vol. 85(2) 286–303
!The Author(s) 2017
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852317692138
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Corresponding author:
Tjeerd Zandberg, Stenden University of Applied Sciences – Hotel Management School, POB 1298,
Leeuwarden, 8900 CG, The Netherlands.
Email: tjeerd.zandberg@stenden.com
Keywords
career incentives, collective motives, innovative behavior, institutional context, intra-
organizational networking
Introduction
This study seeks to contribute to the literature on public managers’ innovative
behavior by looking at intra-organizational managerial networking. Public
managers are the linking pin between political appointees and bureaucratic opera-
tives. They play an important role in daily operation, including duties such as
monitoring the provision of services and meeting policy and budgetary deadlines.
Attention to public managers’ behavior and their role in policymaking and public
service provision increased in recent years, mainly as a consequence of the rise and
institutionalization of the New Public Management movement (Boston, 2011).
Although public managers have traditionally been portrayed as an obstacle to
change (Huy, 2001), New Public Management and other contemporary adminis-
trative reforms build on the assumption that managers do play a crucial role in the
strategic process of governmental organizations (Boston, 2011; Osborne and
Gaebler, 1992). In addition, a number of contributions in the public administration
literature have developed the notion that managerial behavior is crucial to organ-
izational performance (e.g. Altman, 1979; Do
¨ring et al., 2015). In particular, public
managers can play a central role in promoting organizational responsiveness,
innovation, and policy renewal (Chen et al., 2017; Vigoda, 2002).
Networking and networks are important antecedents of organizational perform-
ance in the public sector (Peters et al., 2015; Randma-Liiv et al., 2015; Torenvlied
et al., 2012). Managerial networking—that is, the frequency of contacts that man-
agers maintain with other actors (Wolff and Moser, 2009)—seems to have a posi-
tive effect on performance by increasing access to support and resources (Meier and
O’Toole, 2001). This echoes findings in the (private) managerial literature, where
networking has been positively associated with organizational survival and
increased output. Specifically, networking has been associated with performance
via innovativeness: networking improves access to resources, support, ideas, and
information, which, in turn, potentiate innovation and overall performance
(Pappas and Wooldridge, 2007).
There are several ways in which public managers can make use of the social
capital contained in their social networks. Previous studies in the public adminis-
tration literature have focused by and large on understanding (organizational)
performance, and have mainly studied processes of inter-organizational network-
ing (i.e. networking in inter-organizational networks between managers and actors
in the organizational environment). The core idea of these studies is that managers
act as boundary spanners between the external environment and the internal organ-
ization. This boundary-spanning mechanism drives the relation between
Zandberg and Nieto Morales 287
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