Représentations sociales du travail par les fonctionnaires camerounais et innovation dans les services publics

Abstract

At a time when innovation is seen as an indispensable asset for the smooth running of public and private organization, because it stimulates growth, improves the standard of living of populations and fosters social cohesion, this dissertation questions the outdated innovation in Cameroon’s public services. For this reason, relying on the theory of social representations, we hypothesized that: the social representation of work developed by Cameroon officials affect innovative behaviors in Cameroonian public services. The aim of this study is to investigate the link between social representations of work and innovation behaviours in Cameroon’s public services. A questionnaire survey was 201 civil servants in the city of Yaoundé. The data collected were processed by correlation analysis and simple regression analyzes using JAPS 26th version software. The results of the study show that: representations of work centered on stress inhibit innovative behavior in public services. Specifically, the generation of new ideas (β=-.048; t= -.0681; p=0.497), the promotion of new ideas (β= -.032; t= -.0453; p=0.651) and the implementation of news ideas (β = -.0005; t= -.0073; p=0.942). However, the effects are not significant, they do not allow us to validate the hypotheses formulated. On the other hand, representation of work centered on remuneration, occupation and self-fulfillment lead to an increase in innovation behaviours, in line the with our predictions. For remuneration we have: the generation of new ideas (β= 0.217; t= 3.142; p=0.002), the promotion of new ideas (β= 0.251; t= 3.661; p˂ 0.001), the implementation of new ideas (β= 0.221; t= 3.202; p=0.002). with regard to occupation, we have: generation of new ideas (β= 0.217; t= 3.142; p=0.002), the promotion of new ideas (β= 0.251; t= 3.661; p˂0.001), implementation of new ideas (β= 0.221; t= 3.202; p=0.002). As for fulfillment we have: the generation of new ideas (β= 0.498; t= 8.105; p˂0.001), the promotion of new ideas (β= 0.424; t= 6.612; p˂0.001); the implementation of new ideas (β= 0.483; t= 7.783; p˂0.001). Thus, the related hypotheses are validated.