PurposeThis study clarifies the factors that foster individual innovative behaviour in the public sector by examining the effects and roles of empowering leadership, work group cohesiveness and individual learning orientation. This study also explores the direct effect of empowering leadership on work group cohesiveness and individual learning orientation, the influence of work group cohesiveness on individual learning orientation and the mediating roles of work group cohesiveness and individual learning orientation.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from an online survey of respondents working in a public sector organization. Partial least squares structural equation modelling and mediation analysis by the bootstrap method were used for the data analysis.FindingsEmpowering leadership and individual learning orientation had significant direct effects on individual innovative behaviour. Both empowering leadership and work group cohesiveness have significant direct effects on individual learning orientation. Empowering leadership was positively related to work group cohesiveness. The mediation analysis revealed that individual learning orientation mediates the relationships between empowering leadership and individual innovative behaviour and between work group cohesiveness and individual innovative behaviour.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focuses on three factors that foster individual innovative behaviour in a public sector organization.Originality/valueThis study offers new insights into the factors that foster individual innovative behaviour in the public sector. The findings reveal the importance of using a balanced leadership style and encourage learning in the workplace for individual innovativeness by public leaders.

Purpose The aim of this study is to examine the role of organizational climate in employees’ creative performance using the public sector as an empirical context. The employees’ creative performance is divided into two entities and studied as two separate effect variables: individual creativity and individual innovative behavior. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model is developed and tested in a survey in which employees of a public sector organization participated. Findings The findings indicate that organizational climate has an important role in employees’ creative performance. The organizational climate showed a positive and significant link to the two creative performance variables included in this study. Moreover, the study revealed that individual creativity mediates the relationship between organizational climate and individual innovative behavior. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited to examining the role of organizational climate on two creative performance variables related to individual employees in the public sector. To trigger individual creativity and individual innovative behavior in the public sector, there is a need for managers to build, develop and maintain an organizational climate that supports both employees’ creativity and enthusiasm in implementing those novel and useful ideas. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first in the public sector to demonstrate the importance of organizational climate for employees’ individual creative performance. The findings of this study adds to our current knowledge and understanding of the value of organizational climate, and its influence on individual creative performance in the public sector.

Background There is growing interest in and focus on healthcare services research to identify factors associated with innovation in healthcare organizations. However, previous innovation research has concentrated primarily on the organizational level. In contrast, this study focuses on innovation by individual employees. The specific aim is to examine factors with potential impact on individual employee innovation in hospital organizations. Thus, the study significantly deepens and broadens previous research on innovation in the domain of health services. Methods A conceptual model was developed and tested on a sample of hospital employees (n = 1008). Partial least-squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data with SmartPLS 3 software in two steps involving a measurement model and a structural model. Mediation analysis was used to test the proposed indirect effects. Results Hospital employees’ individual innovative behaviour is directly and positively associated with individual creativity (β = 0.440), psychological capital (β = 0.34) and leadership autonomy support (β = 0.07). The relationships between leadership autonomy support, psychological capital and individual innovative behaviour are all mediated by employees’ creativity. Psychological capital mediates the relationship between leadership autonomy support and individual innovative behaviour. Overall, the proposed model explains 50% of the variance in hospital employees’ innovative behaviour. Conclusions This study reveals a complex pattern of links between innovative behaviour and leadership autonomy support, employees’ creativity and employees’ psychological capital. However, the findings indicate that leadership autonomy support has an influential and multifaceted impact on hospital employees’ innovative behaviour.

Background In the domain of health services, little research has focused on how organizational culture, specifically internal market-oriented cultures (IMOCs), are associated with organizational climate resources, support for autonomy (SA), and whether and how IMOCs and SA are either individually or in combination related to employee perceptions of the attractiveness of the organization and their level of innovative behavior. These knowledge gaps in previous research motivated this study. Methods A conceptual model was tested on a sample (N = 1008) of hospital employees. Partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) was employed to test the conceptual models, using the SmartPLS 3 software. To test the mediator effect, a bootstrapping test was used to determine whether the direct and indirect effects were statistically significant, and when combining two tests, to determine the type of mediator effect. Results The results can be summarized as four key findings: i) organizational culture (referring to an IMOC) was positively and directly related to SA (β = 0.87) and organizational attractiveness (β = 0.45); ii) SA was positively and directly related to both organizational attractiveness (β = 0.22) and employee individual innovative behavior (β = 0.37); iii) The relationships between an IMOC, SA, and employee innovative behavior were all mediated through organizational attractiveness; and iv) SA mediated the relationship between the IMOC and organizational attractiveness as well as that between the IMOC and employee innovative behavior. Conclusions Organizational culture, IMOC, organizational climate resources, and SA were highly correlated and necessary drivers of employee perceptions of organizational attractiveness and their innovative behavior. Managers of hospitals should consider IMOC and SA as two organizational resources that are potentially manageable and controllable. Consequently, managers should actively invest in these resources. Such investments will lead to resource capitalization that will improve both employee perceptions of organizational attractiveness as well as their innovative behavior.

Background Health services organizations must understand how best to lower nursing professionals’ turnover intentions, and increase their job satisfaction and the quality of care provided to patients. This study aims to examine whether work engagement (WE) is a significant predictor of the achievement of these preferred organizational goals. The study also aims to examine whether organizational culture and organizational climate can manage the WE of nursing professionals and indirectly contribute to the accomplishment of the preferred organizational goals. Methods In detail, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey study was conducted through a convenience sampling of a total of N = 164 nurses, from four Norwegian public hospitals. Structural equation modeling was employed in testing the hypothesis in the conceptual model, using Stata software. Furthermore, mediation analyses were achieved through use of the “medsem” package in the Stata software, in testing whether the proposed direct and indirect effects were statistically significant, and the type of mediation found. Results The three key findings from this study are: i) WE of nursing professionals was found to be positively related to service quality of care (β = 0.551) and job satisfaction (β = 0.883). Job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between WE and turnover intention and in itself explains almost 60% (R2 = 0.59) of turnover intention; ii) nursing professionals’ perception of organizational culture (β = 0.278) and collaboration climate (β = 0.331) were both directly related to their WE; and iii) WE fully mediates the relationship between organizational culture/climate and service quality of care and job satisfaction. Moreover, WE partially mediates the relationship between collaborative climate and job satisfaction. Conclusions The WE of nursing professionals is highly correlated to their job satisfaction. WE and turnover intentions are (fully) mediated by job satisfaction. Employers should therefore focus on improving the job satisfaction of nursing professionals. The WE of nursing professionals is a common key factor for such improvement. Consequently, leaders and managers should continuously manage nursing professionals’ WE, focusing on such areas as organizational culture and climate, because WE is an effective means of enabling multiple desirable outcomes for hospital organizations.