The administrative process innovation was adopted with enthusiasm by the Western advanced industrialized countries and was taken for granted as a superior approach that should be practiced. However, public organizations in Indonesia are structured and run differently making public sector employees may have different views toward new ways of doing the job. This article aims to reveal who innovates in the organization by analyzing typical personality traits. The hypotheses are tested through a sample of 200 employees of public universities located in South Kalimantan, Indonesia, and structural equation modeling is used. Applying Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), the five-factor personality in this research is labeled as adjustment (neuroticism), sociability (extraversion), likeability (agreeableness), prudence (conscientiousness), and school success (openness to experience). The results are discussed regarding the implications for what one can learn from individual-level studies of personality and innovation. Suggestions are offered to those universities interested in encouraging service quality in the public sector via innovation. Key words: five-factor personality, innovation, public sector, Indonesia