Top managers not the source of government innovation, report finds

Middle managers and frontline staff produce most of the federal government's innovative ideas, according to a study released in February by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government. Nearly 50 percent of the innovative ideas initiated in the federal government come from middle managers or frontline staff, according to University of Toronto professor Sandford Borins, author of the report, "The Challenge of Innovating in Government." Borins surveyed more than 300 government employees from around the world who had been honored for innovations. Those surveyed included recipients of awards from the Innovations in American Government program sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government, and the international innovations awards program sponsored by the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management. The belief that innovative ideas trickle down from the top is a myth, Borins said. More ideas come from middle and lower management ranks because that level of government is usually filled with younger, more diverse employees, he added. "The problem is that elected officials and political appointees often lack sufficiently detailed knowledge of their area of responsibility to innovate," Borins said. Lower and middle managers are also more involved in the day-to-day operations of an agency or department, making them more aware of areas that need innovation. Younger people are also more comfortable with information technology, Borins said, an area where much of the government's innovation has occurred in the past few years. The report notes that creative thinking within the federal government is discouraged and constrained by stringent control measures and a lack of incentive programs. The consequences for making mistakes carry more weight for government workers than they do for employees in the private sector, further stunting the development of new ideas. "Innovations developed by public sector servants in the employ of government are generally government property…There is no shared ownership, and public servants are paid a fixed salary," Borins said. "In other words, the reward for successful innovations in the public sector are meager." To encourage more creative thinking in the federal workplace, top officials need to establish recognition programs within the organization and allow employees to experiment, the report said. Agency heads should also increase financial incentives, provide more resources for implementing innovative ideas, and look for good ideas in the private sector that could be used in-house. Most importantly, innovation should come from all levels of government, Borins said. "Innovators who succeed despite an organizational culture that is either indifferent or hostile create the possibility of a cultural transformation," the report said.