UNCORRECTED PROOF Please cite this article in press as: Garc´ ıa-Go˜ ni M, et al., Innovation and motivation in public health professionals, Health Policy (2007), doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2007.05.006 ARTICLE IN PRESS HEAP 2034 1–15 Health Policy xxx (2007) xxx–xxx Innovation and motivation in public health professionals 3 Manuel Garc´ ıa-Go˜ ni a,∗ , Andr´ es Maroto b , Luis Rubalcaba c 4 a Manuel Garc´ ıa-Go˜ ni, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Departamento de Econom´ ıa Aplicada II, Campus de Somosaguas, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarc´ on, Madrid, Spain 5 6 b Universidad de Alcal´ a and SERVILAB, Spain 7 c Universidad de Alcal´ a, SERVILAB and RESER, Spain 8 9 Abstract 10 Objectives: Innovations in public health services promote increases in the health status of the population. Therefore, it is a major concern for health policy makers to understand the drivers of innovation processes. This paper focuses on the differences in behaviour of managers and front-line employees in the pro-innovative provision of public health services. 11 12 13 Methods: We utilize a survey conducted on front-line employees and managers in public health institutions across six European countries. The survey covers topics related to satisfaction, or attitude towards innovation or their institution. We undertake principal components analysis and analysis of variance, and estimate a multinomial ordered probit model to analyse the existence of different behaviour in managers and front-line employees with respect to innovation. 14 15 16 17 Results: Perception of innovation is different for managers and front-line employees in public health institutions. While front-line employees’ attitude depends mostly on the overall performance of the institution, managers feel more involved and motivated, and their behaviour depends more on individual and organisational innovative profiles. 18 19 20 Conclusion: It becomes crucial to make both managers and front-line employees at public health institutions feel participative and motivated in order to maximise the benefits of technical or organisational innovative process in the health services provision. 21 22 © 2007 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. 23 Keywords: Motivation; Innovation; Managers; Front-line employees; Public health 24 25 1. Introduction 1 The effect of innovation processes has been greatly 2 explored in the public health literature under different 3 perspectives, as its diffusion [1], its relationship with 4 the intellectual property rights [2], or within the study 5 of the situation in a specific country [3]. In fact, there 6 is a general consensus among researchers and public 7 ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 913943235; fax: +34 913942457. E-mail address: mggoni@ccee.ucm.es (M. Garc´ ıa-Go˜ ni). health policy makers in the statement that the adoption 8 of innovative processes (either technological or organ- 9 isational) in the provision of health services promotes 10 an increase in the health status of the population or in 11 their quality of life [4–6]. This consensus stems from 12 a wide set of research studies: some of them compare 13 the productivity of health services before and after the 14 adoption of innovations, and others take the perspec- 15 tive of the cost–benefit analysis. With respect to the 16 effect of innovations in the health productivity, after 17 the adoption of an innovation, it is supposed that there 18 exists an increase in productivity in which the benefits 19 1 0168-8510/$ – see front matter © 2007 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. 2 doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2007.05.006