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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of New Public Management (NPM) reforms/practices on innovation in public sector organizations. Although much is written on NPM, the assumption that NPM reforms stimulate organizational innovation has not been empirically tested. The present study is an attempt to bridge this research gap.

Building on open-systems approach, institutional theory, and innovation research, this study argues that organizational innovation occurs in response to stimuli in the external (environmental factors) and internal environment (organizational factors), considering NPM reforms/practices as a proxy for external or environmental factors. Organizational factors include formal structural complexity, senior management support and job security. The study tests this model using data from a national survey conducted in five states in the US.

The study provides empirical insights into our understanding of the factors that drive innovation in public sector organizations. The study finds that although environmental factors are as significant as organizational factors in driving innovation in the public sector, senior management support remains the most important predictor of innovation.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study the effect of NPM reforms and practices on innovation in public organizational settings.

Conventional wisdom says that diverse organisations perform better. However, this is not always the case. Diverse teams that are not inclusive are unable to leverage their diversity, and thus will not reap its benefits. The purpose of this paper is to show that organisations that exhibit inclusive behaviour and inclusive leadership can leverage diversity to reap its multiple positive benefits.

This paper draws on various examples from different sectors, including Kodak, the US Armed Forces and NASA, to analyse the effects of sameness on teams. It also draws on the author’s own experience and the most recent peer-reviewed research to look at the effects of inclusive management, not just diversity.

This paper shows that there is ample evidence that diverse teams often perform better, and that they only perform better when led inclusively. The combination of diverse teams and inclusive management can lead to increased innovation and productivity and better decision-making.

This important reframing of the value of inclusion and not just diversity is insightful for the CEO and C-suite leaders, as well as essential for human resource managers or anyone who makes decisions about hiring, promotions or team composition.