The Prudent Entrepreneurs. Women and Public Sector Innovation

Abstract

This paper suggests a new argument to explain gender differences in public management: the “prudent entrepreneur theory.” We hypothesize that male and female public managers have three differences in their attitudes towards innovation. Firstly, female managers are more motivated to achieve results – instead of following rules – and to do something useful for society. Secondly, female public managers are open to new ideas and creativity, and more willing to challenge the status quo. Yet, thirdly, female leaders are less eager to take risks when would-be innovations may put their organizations in peril. That is, women in public sector leadership positions are both more entrepreneurial and more prudent. A multilevel analysis – based on the responses by 5,909 senior public managers from 20 countries of the COCOPS Executive Survey on Public Sector Reform and data of national public administrations from the Quality of Government Expert Survey – shows support for these hypotheses.