A practice approach to fostering employee engagement in innovation initiatives in public service organisations

Abstract

This article adds to the public sector innovation literature by capturing the practices which act to enable or restrict employee engagement in innovation initiatives. Drawing on six cases of public service organizations in Scotland, UK, participating in an intrapreneurship programme, we identity two types of practice which formalize means of organizing resources (structural practices) and promote a positive attitude towards innovation (embedding practices). Our findings also highlight that an organizations’ strategic motives for participating in initiatives influences the strength of these engagement practices. The implications are discussed in relation to future practice-orientated approaches to public sector innovation research.