The Moderating role of Organizational Culture in the Relationship Between Job Autonomy and Innovative Behavior

As modern governments face increasing pressure to meet citizens’ rising expectations, innovation has become a central focus for public organizations. While job autonomy is a well-established antecedent of individual innovative behavior, the moderating role of organizational culture in shaping this relationship remains underexplored. Public organizations often embody different types of culture, such as performance-oriented culture that emphasizes efficiency and adherence to predefined indicators, and innovation culture that encourages the generation and promotion of new ideas. Using data from the South Korean government and a competing values framework theory, this study examines the differential impacts of innovation culture versus performance-oriented culture on innovative behavior and assesses how these cultural orientations moderate the effect of job autonomy. Innovation culture not only directly fosters innovative behavior but also enhances the beneficial influence of job autonomy on such behavior. Conversely, a strong performance-oriented culture diminishes the positive relationship between job autonomy and innovative behavior.