The Relationship between Workplace Innovation and Organizational Culture: A Case Study of a Victorian Public Sector Organization A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Leonie Catherine Newnham Diploma of Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring Bachelor of Arts, The University of Melbourne Graduate Diploma of Education, The University of Melbourne Masters of Business Administration Monash University School of Management College of Business RMIT University April, 2018 i Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed– BCHEAN project approval number: 1000447. Signature: Leonie Catherine Newnham Student number: 9610937V Date: 9th April 2018 Senior Supervisor: Professor Adela McMurray Associate Supervisor: Doctor Nuttawuth Muenjohn I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship i Acknowledgements I want to acknowledge the lifelong love, support and encouragement from my mum and dad, Maevie and John Newnham and dedicate this in memory of them and their love of learning. I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to my husband David and daughter Amanda Morgan who have lived with another presence in our family for a number of years, this thesis that has taken a lot of my focus and energy. They have lovingly supported me to achieve this life goal.
I thank particularly my supervisors, RMIT research support staff, extended family, work colleagues, well-wishers and my friends. I thank them for their continuous support over the course of this research. With a special thank you to Peter Riches and Tony Nesci who provided advice and expertise on working with large Word documents. I feel privileged to have been able to work with my supervisors Professor Adela McMurray and Doctor Nuttawuth Muenjohn.
My sincere gratitude goes to my senior supervisor, Professor Adela McMurray who supports and works with her students to make them successful. She is an outstanding researcher and academic who shares her love of research unselfishly and to great effect. She encouraged me to keep persisting even though my studies were broken by the need to care for my family. I have had a wonderful academic experience thanks to her guidance and have found it a privilege to work with Adela.
I thank her for the opportunity to work with her and everything that she has contributed to this research. I thank Doctor Nuttawuth Muenjohn, who has been my joint supervisor and for coaching me and helping me develop in statistical skills. His support and his gentle encouragement led me to keep striving to develop to new levels and I am grateful for his kindness. He is a dedicated researcher and excellent supervisor.
I have particularly valued working with Doctor Peter Chomley as a colleague, mentor and friend. We began our academic journey together and he has encouraged me and supported me to continue to a successful end. He generously shared with me the learnings from his academic journey which assisted me in mine. ii I want to thank my Department and the Senior Managers who have encouraged me to share knowledge about our organization in a range of forums over the twenty years I have been part of its community.
I particularly would like to thank those who gave me the opportunity to undertake the research for this thesis. Adam Fennessy, the then Departmental Secretary who was an inspirational leader in his belief and support for the creation of positive work cultures. Gary Atherton who as my direct manager and the Director of People and Culture, supported my research and identified a window in the organization’s busy life to run the survey. Chris Corrigan who as the Manager of the organizational culture area navigated through the intense change period described in this thesis with great good humour and skill while continuing to build cultural capacity.
Nick Oates as Senior Advisor to the Secretary with whom I had the joy of working to foster and build innovation capacity within the department. I thank John Parker, former Surveyor-General of Victoria for his encouragement of my work studying innovation in the public sector through my work at the Environment Department in Victoria. He supported and mentored me in submitting papers on this work to the International Federation of Surveyors to reach an international audience. Doctor Ron Browne supported me in working with the Institute of Public Administration to build the public sector profession and I thank him for this and his encouragement to keep learning and aspiring to complete doctoral studies.
I would like to thank Tronh Anh Trinh who tutored me in the use of Stata software so I could undertake Structural Equation Modelling. Lastly, Professional editor, Doctor Sharon Lierse, provided copyediting and proofreading services, according to the guidelines laid out in the university-endorsed national ‘Guidelines for editing research theses’. iii Contents Chapter 1.4 Background and Research Rationale .1 Research questions and hypotheses .1 Case Study approach .6 Structure of the Thesis .7 Terms and Definitions .9 Delimitation of Scope .10 Thesis Contribution to Literature and Practice .3 Definitions of Private Sector and Public Sector Innovation .4 The Importance of Public Sector innovation in Delivering Modern Government .5 Difference between Private Sector and Public Sector Innovation .1 Differences in delivering innovation at the organizational level .2 Identified barriers to public sector innovation.3 System wide view of public sector innovation .6 The Public Sector in Australia and its Innovation Roles .1 The evolving role of the Commonwealth Government .2 State Governments: a source of significant innovation .3 Victorian Public Sector Innovation Policy .1 Workplace Innovation in the Public Sector .2 Workplace Innovation Scale (WIS) .11 Definition of Organizational Culture .12 Differences between Private and Public Service Organizational Culture .13 Relationship between Organizational Culture and Innovation .1 Organizational Culture in the Public Sector and its connection to Workplace Innovation .2 How the connection of behaviours at the organization level creates climate that impacts innovative behaviours.14 Measuring Organizational Culture.1 Organization Cultural Inventory measurement tool .15 Organizational Culture Summary .16 Management of Public Sector Organizations .17 The Public Sector Context .18 Public Sector Organizations .19 The Differences between Public Sector and Private Sector Management .20 Developments in Public Sector Management .1 New Public Management to the evolution of Public Management.2 The Victorian context.3 Changing organizational forms in the Public Sector context.21 Public Sector Organizational Management Summary .22 Demographics and Employment Characteristics .24 Addressing the Omissions. Victorian Public Sector Organization .3 Definition of Victorian Government Departments .4 Organizational Summary - Department A .5 The Iteration of the Department Being Studied: Department A.2 Organizational subcultures in Department A .4 Justification for the Mixed Methods Research Design .6 Analysis Techniques for the Three Stages of Methods .7 Development of a Questionnaire with Dimensions to Answer RQs 1 to 3 .1 Public sector culture .3 Demographic and Employment Characteristics information .8 Quantitative Analysis Process .2 Main survey procedures .4 Variation between answering rates for open ended and multiple-choice questions ……………………………………………………………………………………….9 Ethics in Conducting Research .4 Demographic Profile of the Sample .1 Reliability of scales and factors .2 Reliability of the Workplace Innovation Scale .3 Exploratory Factor Analysis .6 Relationship between Culture and Workplace Innovation .1 Survey results to answer RQ.2 Stage one analysis to answer RQ.
1 using linear regression.3 Stage two analysis to answer to RQ. 1 using Structural Equation Modelling 178 5.7 Survey Results to Answer RQ.1 Comparison of Gender – Hypotheses 2 and 3 .2 Compare across Marital Status – Hypotheses 2 and 3 .3 Age Comparison - Hypotheses 2 and 3 .4 Comparison across Education Levels - Hypotheses 2 and 3 .5 Comparison of Gender – Hypothesis 4 and 5 .6 Compare across Marital Status – Hypotheses 4 and 5 .7 Age comparison – Hypotheses 4 and 5 .8 Compare across Educational Levels – Hypotheses 4 and 5 .8 Survey Results to Answer RQ. 3 and Test Hypotheses 6 to 9 .1 Compare across Tenure Categories – Hypotheses 6 and 7 .2 Comparison across Job Types – Hypotheses 6 and 7 .3 Comparison across Work Groups – Hypotheses 6 and 7 .4 Comparison across Work Roles – Hypotheses 6 and 7 .5 Comparison across Working Flexibly – Hypotheses 6 and 7.6 Comparison across Tenure Categories – Hypotheses 8 and 9 .7 Comparison across Job Types – Hypotheses 8 and 9 .8 Compare across Work Groups – Hypotheses 8 and 9 .9 Comparison across Work Roles – Hypotheses 8 and 9 .10 Comparison across Working Flexibly – Hypotheses 8 and 9. 220 Results of the Hypotheses Analysis .3 Background to the Qualitative Analysis .5 Data Validity, Quality and Reliability .6 Qualitative Data Analysis .1 Approach to Stage one triangulation .2 Approach to data analysis .7 Overview of information Flows in a Public Sector Organization .8 Model Development for Overarching Themes .1 Public Sector Culture Model .2 Workplace Innovation Model .3 Demographic and Employment Characteristics Models.4 Public Sector Organization Model .9 Analysis of Quantitative Findings Using Thematic Models .1 Finding 1 - : Culture has a significant effect on Workplace Innovation .2 Finding 2 – Group Culture is a significant predictor of Workplace Innovation250 6.3 Finding 3 - Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Workplace Innovation Climate.4 Finding 4 - Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Individual Innovation.5 Finding 5 - Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Team Innovation.6 Finding 6 - Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Organizational Innovation.7 Findings 7 & 9 - Demographic Groups have different perceptions and affects on Culture.8 Findings 8 & 10 - Demographic Groups have different perceptions and affects on Workplace Innovation.9 Findings 11 & 13 – Staff with specific Employment Characteristics have different perceptions and affects on Culture.10 Findings 12 & 14 - Staff with specific Employment Characteristics have different perceptions and affects on Workplace Innovation.10 Analysis of Overarching Themes .1 Theme of Public Sector Culture .2 Theme of Public Sector Culture and Theme of Workplace Innovation .3 Theme of Demographics .4 Theme of staff with specific Employment Characteristics .5 Theme of Public Sector Organization.
Mixed Methods Integration of Quantitative and Qualitative components .3 Integration of the Mixed Methods Approach .1 Stage two triangulation of the qualitative and quantitative results .5 Overarching Themes underpinning the Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis .1 Group Culture is more important for Workplace Innovation .2 Department A change management was managed centrally and led by Senior Executives with limited engagement with staff .3 Workplace Innovation was not equally supported across Department A .4 Particular demographic groups experienced disadvantage .5 Organizational barriers impeded Workplace Innovation.6 Department A’s workplace structure impacted on Workplace Innovation .3 The Relationship between Workplace Innovation and Organizational Culture. 1 What is the relationship between Workplace Innovation and Public Sector Culture in the context of a Victorian Public Sector Organization? .1 H1 Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Workplace Innovation.2 Group Culture had a stronger impact on Workplace Innovation .3 H1a Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Workplace Innovation Climate ……………………………………………………………………………………….4 H1b Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Individual Innovation .5 H1c Public Sector Culture has a significant effect on Team Innovation .6 H1d Culture has a significant effect on Organizational Innovation .7 Summary of results for Research Question 1 .2 Differences in perception among Demographic Groups .1 H2 - Demographic Groups perceptions towards Organizational Culture .2 H3 - Demographic Groups perceptions towards Workplace Innovation .3 H4 & H5 Demographic Groups affect Organizational Culture and Workplace Innovation .3 Differences in Perception among Staff with specific Employment Characteristics.1 H6 Staff with specific Employment Characteristics perceptions towards Culture ……………………………………………………………………………………….