The Impact of Paradoxical Leadership on Public Sector Innovation Through Entrepreneurial Orientation and Goal Congruence

While leadership and entrepreneurship are recognized as essential factors in influencing innovation, the extent to which the constructs are interconnected and dependent on the public sector contextual environment is less well understood. In response, this study examined how public managers' paradoxical leadership and entrepreneurial orientation interact with public employees' perceptions of innovation at different levels of their goal congruence. Informed by the theory of ambidextrous leadership, we created a moderated mediation model of the influence of paradoxical leadership on public sector innovation via entrepreneurial orientation and goal congruence. Survey results were gathered from 339 subordinate-supervisor dyads in 69 teams from public sector departments in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. SPSS was used to analyze the data using PROCESS-Macro. The results showed that the relationship between paradoxical leadership and public employees' innovation was totally mediated by the entrepreneurial orientation of public organizations. It was also found that paradoxical leadership fosters entrepreneurial orientation when there is a high level of goal congruence team members. However, paradoxical behavior of managers still increases entrepreneurial orientation in public organizations though goal congruence is at the low level. Thus, whether the goal congruence at a high or low rate, public managers appear to stimulate entrepreneurship correspondingly. Significantly, this study recommends a new theoretical model of paradoxical leadership as a feasible strategy to be implemented in the public sector, which may help public employees be innovative in unpredictable publicworking situations. It is proposed that this research paradigm can be expanded to public organizations in cultural contexts comparable to Vietnam's.