The exploration of innovative leadership transition in service delivery performance within the digitalisation era: A case of provincial public sector

The current global headwinds of trade wars triggered by the imposition of tariffs have rattled the geopolitical landscape, with policymakers having to repurpose their leadership acumen in the context of innovation within the public sector. The contemporary era of the 5th Industrial Revolution, characterised by fast-advancing innovative technologies, has spurred the leaders to take the public spaces to the forefront and centre of their decision-making. These uncertainties and predictabilities have exerted more pressure on policy-makers and authorities to prioritise their leadership and innovative prowess to embrace the new normal of e-commerce, big data and cloud computing pervasiveness in the organisational environment. The study examined the collaboration of the transformational leadership perspective within the demands and challenges of the innovation culture and corresponding permutations within the public sector for the optimisation and maximisation of public value and social good. The study adopted an interpretivist research philosophy predicated on the inductive solicitation of the participants' inputs based on theoretical insights, expertise and experiences within the challenges juxtaposing leadership and innovation assimilation. A rigorous analysis of the extraction of contributions within the study findings revealed unbalanced nuances of innovation as an integral organisational inevitable culture, processes and intervention which should be led by the decision-makers and practitioners. The implications indicate the urgent priority for the public sector entities to invest in innovations in infrastructure, facilities and software coupled with capabilities to drive this integral deliverable. Furthermore, findings presented that the adopted innovations demonstrated to be beneficial in terms of advancing service delivery expectations.