Abstract:
The South African government's goal to
achieve an effective and efficient public service
that is development-orientated has led
it towards a greater focus on innovation. In
this context, public servants have been identified
as one of the key sources of innovation
and are called upon to generate innovative
solutions to public service challenges ‒ a
practice referred to as intrapreneurship.
However, studies on intrapreneurship in
South Africa's public service have revealed
the lack of an enabling environment for
intrapreneurship. This brings into question
the conditions that are necessary to foster
intrapreneurship and its diffusion across
the South African public service.
Thus, through qualitative research methods,
this study investigated how the calls for
public servants to become intrapreneurs are
translated into practice, to better understand
the context in which this practice must be
fostered; and to explore some of the ways to mitigate identified barriers. The findings reveal that institutional management support,
political and policy support, positive perceptions
of risk-taking and sufficient funding
for innovation are some of the key enablers
for intrapreneurship in the South African
public service. This article, therefore, provides
insight into issues related to the promotion of
intrapreneurship in the public service.
