Perceived blame risk and innovative behavior among Chinese grassroots civil servants: the roles of career calling and perceived organizational support.

Introduction: Grassroots civil servants operate at the forefront of public service, where they directly address complex social issues and exercise substantial discretion. As such, they represent a vital source of innovation in advancing the modernization of China's governance system and capacity. However, in an accountability-driven administrative context, the fear of being blamed for potential failures may inhibit their willingness to innovate. While blame avoidance has attracted growing scholarly attention in public administration, limited empirical research has explored how grassroots civil servants' subjective perceptions of blame risk influence their innovative behavior, and the underlying mechanisms remain under-examined. Methods: This study investigates the relationship between perceived blame risk and innovative behavior using survey data from 615 grassroots civil servants in China. It further examines the mediating role of career calling and the moderating role of perceived organizational support. Results: The results show that perceived blame risk is negatively associated with innovative behavior. Career calling partially mediates this relationship: higher perceived blame risk is associated with lower career calling, which, in turn, is associated with lower innovative behavior. Moreover, perceived organizational support moderated the negative associations between perceived blame risk and both career calling and innovative behavior, such that these associations were weaker at higher levels of perceived organizational support. Discussion: These findings highlight the importance of value-oriented career calling cultivation and supportive organizational safeguards in helping sustain grassroots civil servants' innovative behavior under accountability pressure.