Antecedents of public managers’ collective implementation efficacy as they actualize new public services

This article focuses on those organizational and individual factors that increase public managers’ belief in their proactive ability to pursue collective implementation of digital public services. Using social cognitive theory, the authors show that managers’ innovation-implementation efficacy is shaped within the context of the current massive digital transformation of public services. The study uncovers two organizational enablers (organizational climate for innovation and leader expectations for creativity), together with two individual enablers (creative self-efficacy and proactive behaviour). The findings suggest that creative self-efficacy partly mediates between an organizational climate for innovation and collective implementation efficacy. Additionally, leaders’ expectations for creativity and proactivity were found to be partly mediated between innovative climate and collective implementation efficacy.Following the global massive digital government framework, this article (based on the Digital Israel case) provides relevant lessons and directions for managerial practice. Following the notion that collective human perceptions at work have an impact on successful implementation of technology and digitalization, the authors highlight the mechanisms, at the micro-managerial level, that support public managers’ collective capability to implement innovative digital services efficiently. The research model can be used to design HRM strategies to promote managers’ proactive behaviour—a key determinant of managers’ collective implementation efficacy during the digital innovation processes. Practically, a manager’s proactive behaviour, shaped through a climate of innovation and creative self-efficacy, can promote collective confidence in implementing digital services and innovations.