The effect of employees' leisure time skills on individual innovation: An application in Kütahya Municipality

Leisure time has emerged as one of the symbols of modernity after the Industrial Revolution, which is accepted as the beginning of modern time, and has touched the formation of social and cultural identity and the way of thinking and living. As a result of the decrease in the need for manpower after the Industrial Revolution, there has been a positive increase in the time that individuals allocate for themselves, and as a result of the reduction and clarification of working hours, it has enabled the desired evaluation of free time activities. Individual innovativeness is the willingness of individuals to experience new products, processes, methods, tasks, and technologies. In this context, the study was conducted with 325 employees working in Kütahya Municipality through a survey method to determine the effect of leisure time resourcefulness on individual innovativeness. As a result of the findings, it was determined that leisure time resourcefulness has a statistically significant effect on individual innovation (β=0.217; p<0.05). In addition, it was determined that leisure time resourcefulness has a statistically significant effect on the sub-factors of individual innovation such as thought leadership (β=0,275; p<0,05), openness to experience (β=0,290; p<0,05), risk taking (β=0,237; p<0,05). In addition, it was determined that leisure time resourcefulness did not have a statistically significant effect on the sub-factor of individual innovation, resistance to change (β=0.086; p>0.05). Statistically significant differences were determined between the demographic variables (age, education and working time in the organization) and leisure time resourcefulness of Kütahya Municipality employees. Again, statistically significant differences were determined between the demographic variables (Education) and individual innovation of Kütahya Municipality employees. These results show that as a result of intense competition and globalization, it is understood that using the leisure time of public sector employees in good and useful works is an important force multiplier. It should be known that the individual innovativeness of employees will also support this force multiplier.