Organizational climate is seen as a key driver of organizational performance, including sustained innovation. However, there is limited work on the effects of climate duality on innovation. The co-existence of two distinct climate dimensions (duality) in an organization creates the potential for both generative and disruptive dualities. By dividing the innovation process into an idea generation stage and an innovation implementation stage, we develop a theory linking climate duality and the generative–disruptive dichotomy at each stage of the innovation process. In particular, we argue that climate duality should be generative at the idea stage and disruptive at the implementation stage. Using data from the 2018 Australian Public Service Employee Census ( N = 59,870), we test the distinct effects of climate duality at each stage. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for theories of work climate and innovation. • Advance workplace climate research with a configurational approach examining interactions among multiple workplace climates • Theorize relationship between duality (co-existence of go-getter and inclusive climates) and stages of innovation process • Use Australian Public Service Employee Census to show climate duality benefits idea generation (a divergent process) • Find climate duality hinders implementation (a convergent process), revealing paradoxical effects on innovation • Extend theories of climate duality and innovation to public organizations, contributing to cross-sector understanding
Lee et al. (Thu,) studied this question.