Explaining the Innovative Culture and Activities of State Agencies

Abstract

In this article we examine the innovative culture and activity of 121 Norwegian and Flemish state agencies, based on an analysis of survey data. We examine variations in innovative culture and activity from a structural-instrumental perspective, a cultural-institutional perspective, a task-related perspective and an environmental-institutional perspective. We use regression analyses to reveal the effect of managerial autonomy, result control, agency size, agency age, organizational performance culture, individual incentive culture, service delivery tasks, source of income and geographical location on innovative culture and activity. The main findings are that the level of innovation is fairly high in state agencies. Secondly, an organizational culture oriented towards organizational performance and individual incentives has a significant impact on both innovative culture and activity. Having service delivery as a main task and a large budget also makes a difference. Although NPM doctrine assumes that managerial autonomy and result-oriented control will enhance innovative culture and activity, we found no direct effect of these variables when we controlled for other variables. Result-oriented control does, however, have an indirect effect on innovative activity.