Enhancing Innovative Work Behaviour of Malaysian Public Sector Employees

Kamarul Liza Hashim

doi:10.47405/mjssh.v6i2.665

Abstract

One primary driver to boost organisations’ competitiveness and efficiency lies in employees’ innovative work behaviour. The goal of this study is to investigate the direct influence of ethical leadership, organisational commitment, and self-efficacy on innovative work behaviour of Malaysian public sector employees. This study adapted a quantitative method. Data were collected from 347 civil servants working in public sector organisations. Results revealed that ethical leadership, organisational commitment, and self-efficacy affect employees’ innovative work behaviour in public sector organisations. This research paper is expected to benefit the industry, practitioners, and academicians for future reference.

Highlights

Public sector organisations need to become more innovative, given the numerous challenges facing them
Data were collected from Pegawai Tadbir and Diplomatik (PTD) from grade 41 to grade 54 who were working in public sector organisations in Malaysia
This study focused on PTD because it is important for PTD, who are considered as knowledge workers in the Malaysian public service, to have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to facilitate widespread use of appropriate knowledge that corresponds to an environment that has volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA)

Summary

Introduction

Public sector organisations need to become more innovative, given the numerous challenges facing them. The importance of innovation in the public sector has been recognised (Vrabie & Ianole-călin, 2020) due to the need to increase the efficiency of public services and the effectiveness of solving problem at the workplace (De Vries et al, 2016), to gain competitive advantage (Hughes et al, 2018), and to reduce costs (Mulgan & Albury, 2003). It is suggested that public sector organisations should innovate and compete by inspiring their employees to innovate (Agarwal, 2014; Ali & Buang, 2016; Hartog, 2007), given that new ideas and knowledge can be initiated by the behaviour of individual employees (Abdullah et al, 2015). Employee innovation is defined as “the process associated with the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), process, marketing method, or organizational method in business practices, workplace organization, or external relations, involving non-managerial and non-R&D employees in a management supported, interactive, and/or spontaneous process” (Bäckström & Bengtsson, 2019, p. 11)

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion