10.25905/5bf37ec170911
Alix Taylor
Alix
Taylor
Where public servants dare: Developing archetypes for public sector intrapreneurship
Torrens University Australia
2018
Public Sector policies and actions
Public entrepreneurship
Intrapreneurship
Public Policy
Entrepreneurship
2018-11-20 03:25:51
Thesis
https://torrens.figshare.com/articles/thesis/Where_public_servants_dare_Developing_archetypes_for_public_sector_intrapreneurship/7361492
<div><p>The public sector is under
significant pressure to increase its overall efficiency and effectiveness
through promptly responding to changing environmental challenges and community
expectations. Public entrepreneurship has been established as an approach to
improving public sector performance within the broader public sector innovation
agenda for over thirty years, yet it has not been widely recognised as a
management practice with numerous challenges to its implementation. Taking this
into consideration, there is an argument for intrapreneurship as the answer to
achieving the benefits of public entrepreneurship. Distinct from the ‘top-down’
organisation level practise of public entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship
encompasses the individual level employee attitudes and behaviours that are
innovative, proactive and risk taking. It involves employees voluntarily, and
autonomously, pushing their innovative initiatives in their organisation from
the ‘bottom-up’. Intrapreneurship in the private sector context has been shown
to have beneficial effects on organisational performance, however,
intrapreneurship in the public sector context is virtually an unknown
phenomenon in scholarly research. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>This thesis explores the
practise of employees acting intrapreneurially in the public sector. A
qualitative phenomenological research approach was utilised to conduct semi
structured interviews with twelve participants recruited from the South
Australian Public Sector. Study findings reveal three major activities (1)
seeking impact and innovation using intrapreneurial strategy, (2) generating
freedom and taking action using intrapreneurial behaviour, and (3) responding
to challenges using intrapreneurial orientation. Each activity involves a
number of distinct mindsets, represented through the use of archetypes,
revealing characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, goals, desires and context for
use. Each of these activities and archetypes leads to a particular kind of
consequence for the intrapreneur, ranging from receiving benefits, taking
personal risks and overcoming obstacles through engaging resilience. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>These findings contribute to
the establishment of public intrapreneurship as a distinct public sector
workplace practise. Consequently, this study provides a useful conceptual
framework as the first stage of building the foundations for public
intrapreneurship as a phenomenon, for further refinement and development in
future studies. Also, these findings provide actionable knowledge to assist
public intrapreneurs to achieve success as well as educators, policy makers and
public sector leaders to enable effective public intrapreneurship through
strategies to improve capability and support.</p><br></div>