Sources of Innovation, Autonomy, and Employee Job Satisfaction in Public Organizations

There is increasing interest in analyzing job satisfaction and innovation in organizations. This study tests the effects of two internal sources of innovation—top-down innovations (ideas emanating from an agency’s senior leadership) and bottom-up innovations (ideas emanating from employee workgroups)—on employee job satisfaction in public organizations. Data were collected from Australian Public Service employees (n = 4,235). Employing self-determination theory (SDT) as a framework and testing the mediating effect of autonomy, we expect that while top-down innovations are negatively associated with employee job satisfaction, bottom-up innovations are positively associated with employee job satisfaction. Results from structural equation models (SEM) suggest that while top-down innovations do not have a statistical impact on employee job satisfaction, bottom-up innovations are positively associated with employee job satisfaction. Relating innovation sources to job satisfaction has important implications for academics and practitioners, and contributes to the fields of public management, organizational behavior, and public sector innovation.