Thinking “Outside the Box” Whilst Remaining “Inside the Box”: Do Rules and Procedures Demotivate Creativity and Innovation in the Public Sector?

Abstract

Public servants’ creativity is the origin of innovations, improvements and solutions to policies/services and crucial to serving public interests. Public servants, however, differ strongly in pioneering creativity—proactive generation of radical and original ideas. Using SEM on Flitspanel cross-sectional survey data from 930 Dutch public servants, this preregistered study tested hypotheses that this results from public servants being required to creatively “think outside-the-box” whilst remaining “inside-the-box” of formalized rules/procedures; a struggle that may demotivate and hamper pioneering creativity. Evidence is found for negative relations between formalization and two dimensions of pioneering creativity and positive relations between intrinsic motivation and all three dimensions of pioneering creativity, though no evidence is found for a mediation indicating that formalization hampers creativity through demotivation. Findings provide a detailed and nuanced understanding of how public servants’ creativity appears affected by formalization and motivation, how these concepts interrelate in the public sector, indicating corresponding HR strategies/tactics.