Bridging EMERGE Leadership and Breakthrough Innovationin Public Service: Assessment of Compatibility and Sufficiency,and a New EMERGE Tool
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Contemporary public service challenges -including income disparities, chronic fiscal unbalances and climate change -continue to become more complex and dynamic, indeed "wicked", in nature.Robust public leadership is needed to foster innovative breakthroughs in public service which can drive down costs, increase accessibility and improve the quality of services both now and in the future.While the twin phenomenon of leadership and innovation are the subject of intense theoretical and practical exploration in the private sector, there is a dearth of information on the relationship between leadership and innovation in public service settings.The general trend is to conceive of public service leadership and innovation as separate subjects that are only tangentially linked to each other in theory and practice.This paper bridges the topics of public sector leadership and innovation by exploring the relationship between one specific public leadership framework, e.g., EMERGE Public Leadership (EMERGE), and one type of type of public innovation, e.g., Public Service Breakthrough Innovation (PSBI).The paper begins with definitions for the key concepts and follows with a high level literature review.This review provides the basis for development of our bridging Leadership-Innovation Model.The Leadership-Innovation model is then used to address three research questions: (1) Is EMERGE compatible with the requisites of PSBI? (2) Is EMERGE sufficient for facilitating breakthrough innovations in public service settings?and (3) If EMERGE is not currently sufficient, can a new EMERGE leadership tool be developed to better bridge public leadership and breakthrough innovation in the context of wicked challenges?The paper concludes by noting that EMERGE is compatible with PSBI but not sufficient.A new EMERGE tool is proposed to augment the robustness of EMERGE in fostering public service breakthrough innovations.The new tool is then illustrated in the context of the Center of Public Services's "Innovation Laboratory Initiative".The paper concludes with some suggestions for further exploration and research.
Authors: Chris Davis, Marcus D. Ingle
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1750904165