Fostering innovation through intrapreneurship in the South African public service

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.