Draft Managerial Leadership, the Climate for Creativity, and a Culture of Innovation and Performance-Driven in Local Government

Based on an in-depth case study of Creative City Governance, a government reform program in South Korea's Seoul Metropolitan Government, the author explores the following research questions: 1) How does senior managers' transformational leadership affect an innovation-focused and performance-driven culture within local government? 2) How does a climate that nurtures creativity (i.e., recognition of creativity, the flexibility to change, and resources for innovation), human resources systems (i.e., performance appraisal systems, supervisors' clear communication of the organization's vision, participatory management, and a useful career development system) help to cultivate an innovation-focused and performance-driven culture in a local government organizations? 3) How does managing for results influence the organization's innovation-focused and performance-driven culture? The results of the study show that senior managers' transformative leadership, management for results, recognition of employee creativity, and participatory management are all positively associated with employee perceptions of the organization's innovation-focused and performance-driven culture in the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The study also finds that the degree of the flexibility to change, resources for innovation, supervisor's clear communication of the organization's vision, and fair performance evaluations are also all positively associated with the level of innovation-focused culture; whereas, the quality of career development and training programs is also positively associated with the level of performance-driven culture.