Encouraging Innovative Behavior: The Effects of Leader-Member Exchange and Public Service Motivation

Abstract

Innovation within organizations has captured the attention of public and private sector scholars and managers due to its links to organizational performance, effectiveness and even survival. While prior research has considered various factors that influence innovation in public sector organizations, none have considered what influences whether a manager encourages innovative behaviors among employees. This paper considers the mediating effects of the quality of the relationship between a manager and employee on whether the manager encourages innovative behaviors using a well-known leadership theory, leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, to do so. We also examine the direct effects of public service motivation (PSM) on whether a manager encourages innovative behaviors. We examine these linkages with data from two surveys of 477 employees and 161 managers working in a large state government agency. We find that when the LMX relationship quality is high, it mediates the relationship between employee proactive behavior and managers' encouragement of innovative behaviors. We also find that manager PSM is related to encouraging innovative behavior. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for public management scholarship and practice.