Innovative Behavior and Performance in the Public Sector: Determinants of Innovative Behavior and Their Impacts on Performance

In modern society, where uncertainty has increased due to COVID-19, innovation has become an important keyword. However, it is not easy to find innovative behavior in the public sector. According to the Public Employee Perception Survey, innovative behavior of Korean civil servants has decreased from 3.44 in 2019 (before COVID-19) to 3.33 in 2021 (after COVID-19). This study aims to examine the innovative behavior of civil servants, especially focusing on impacts of management factors (change management, performance management) and motivation factors (public service motivation, compensation) on innovative behavior. And also, this study analyzes mediation effects of innovative behavior in the causal relationships between management/motivation factors and work performance of civil servants. According to the analysis results, performance management, public service motivation, and compensation have direct and indirect effects. However, only the indirect effect was found to be significant for change management. In other words, at the organizational level, change management does not directly affect individual work performance, but change management activates innovative behavior and can indirectly affect individual work performance. These findings suggest that in order to improve individual performance, it is important to encourage individual innovative behavior as well as organizational management.