The influence of the ICT on the control of corruption in public administrations of the EU member states: a comparative analysis based on panel data

Developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have led to major changes in public administration in all democratic states. The fact that information can be made public and accessible from anywhere, at any time, requires a new approach to the process of computerization of public administration. The objective of the research was to know the influence of ITC integration in the EU state administrations on corruption control in the period 2010 - 2019. We selected four relevant variables, which we integrated in a panel analysis including the 27 EU member states. Using STATA we made an econometric model on panel data and obtained interesting results from a scientific point of view. The results show that the integration of ICTs in the EU public administrations has significantly contribution to reducing corruption These results demonstrate the need to accelerate the digitization of administrations and create an integrated model of government cloud in the European administrative space. In addition, the results of the research highlight the differences between EU states in terms of the impact of ICTs on government efficiency and economic development.

The efficiency of providing public services in transport

: Today’s dynamic environment, which is developing at a rapid pace, places high demands not only on transport, but also on efficiency, speed, safety, quality and, in particular, questions about the efficiency of spending funds from city budgets, all with a strong emphasis on the environmental friendliness of urban public transport. Given that the public sector is undergoing changes, the main goal of which is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of financial management in the public sector, cities must really always place a strong emphasis on ensuring maximum efficiency of services provided and the use of public resources in all expenditure areas of the budget. In the vast majority of cases, the financing of urban public transport currently represents the greatest burden on urban public budgets not only in the Czech Republic but also in cities in the EU. The article presents the outputs that emerged within the project “Methodological - application tools for efficiency financial management of territorial structured statutory city”. The outputs of the article are focused on the area of transport, as it is one of the key areas of the city budget and in terms of expenditure sections, transport expenditures represent the highest amount in the budget of the Statutory City of Ostrava. Geographic information systems (GIS) can be successfully used to analyse efficiency, demand and urban public transport planning. For the purpose of effective presentation of information on the state and drawing of the budget and on the effectiveness of funds spent from the budget of the statutory city and individual city districts, the R-Point web map application was created. An interactive map showing statistical indicators in the area, there are also graphs that serve the user for a better comparison of data between individual city districts and the City of Ostrava.

The quality of service to residents by public administration on the example of municipal offices in Poland

Currently, at a time when the Smart City concept is aimed at improving the quality of life of residents and being implemented in cities, the role of measuring the functioning of offices in relation to the customer is growing. The publication presents the results of research on the quality of service to residents by public administration on the example of municipal offices in Poland. The aim of the research, resulting from the identified research gap, was to examine the level of customer service quality in Polish municipal offices and to determine whether monitoring the quality of life and the quality of public services provided affect the quality of customer service. The research was carried out on a wide sample of 287 cities located around Poland, the sample was selected at random. The sample was good in such a way as to maintain the structure by province. The survey included questions rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The conducted research shows that there are no statistically significant differences in the level of customer service quality by municipal offices between individual provinces of Poland. Based on the research, it was found that: the existence of a quality-of-life department in the city has a positive impact on the quality of customer service in the office; monitoring the quality of life of residents and the quality of public services provided by the municipal office has a positive impact on the quality of customer service in the office, the implementation of the ISO 37120 standard by the municipal office has a positive impact on the quality of customer service in the city. A particularly high correlation occurs in the case of the impact of monitoring the quality of customer service.

Multidimensional public sector organizations' digital maturity model

The aim of this study is twofold. First, this study develops a model of an organization's digital maturity that is adjusted to public sector organization. Second, based on the proposed model, digital maturity of several types of public sector organizations is diagnosed. The proposed model includes six dimensions, namely, digitalization-focused management, openness to stakeholders' (partners') needs, digital competencies of employees, digitalization of processes, digital technologies, and e-innovativeness. This model was tested on a sample of 136 public sector organizations operating in Malopolska Region in Poland. The results indicate that, among the six dimensions of digital maturity, the use of digital technologies and digitalization-focused management scored the highest (equivalent to a high and moderate degree of digital maturity). Employees’ digital competencies also represent a moderate level of digital maturity (but still significantly lower). The remaining dimensions, namely, e-innovativeness, digitalization of processes, and openness to stakeholders’ needs, represent a low level of digital maturity. The results show that the examined types of public sector organizations differ in terms of digital maturity. The observed characteristics regarding digital maturity are sufficient to indicate the direction of future development for each type of organization. The proposed model can be used for the diagnosis of digital maturity on the level of a single organization as well.

Cluster analysis of charitable organizations of Ukraine using K-means technology

The work is devoted to the issue of segmentation of charitable organizations for structuring the sector of non-profit organizations of Ukraine using cluster analysis tools using software R for automated data processing. The four-cluster and five-cluster models were constructed using the K-means method, the suitability for clustering of which was checked using the Hopkins’ Index (H statistics). The developed four-cluster model demonstrated a significant level of validity in terms of correspondence between data and the stability of their structure. The basic indicators of financial and economic activity of charitable organizations were used as criteria for clustering: the number of staff, charitable assistance received and funds spent on the maintenance of the organization in the reporting period. It was found that the clusters of charitable organizations of Ukraine differ in the scale of activity, the number of funds raised, the number of costs for their own maintenance and the relationship between these indicators. The study demonstrated the existence in Ukraine of the most influential cluster of local charities that address social issues exclusively at the regional level, due to the small financial resources involved to support their activities. Such organizations are system-creating for the entire nonprofit sector in Ukraine, their importance is manifested in the most rapid response to the needs of recipients through the implementation of small charitable projects.

Efficiency of control in regional self-government of the Slovak Republic

The importance of high quality public sector control is an obvious fact – without efficient and effective control system, the risk of wasting public funds is critical. The goal of this article was to evaluate efficiency of internal control systems on the level of regional self-administration in the Slovakia. The findings clearly document many problems related to the performance of regional control bodies and on this basis purposes and possible actions are proposed. From the point of view of "fiscal rules", the research, for example, pointed to an exceptionally poor situation in compliance with the rules and conditions of budgetary management in the Bystrica region in the period 2006-2009. The research also proves that one of the key problems of nonconceptual and non-transparent asset management of regions is confusing and disadvantageous asset sales. The quantitative analysis suggests that the efficiency (intensity) of the functioning of regional control systems does not have a direct impact on the monitored output indicators. The implemented DEA also indicates the low effectivity of the internal control systems of the regions. Our findings fully prove that there are no truly efficient systems of external and internal control at the level of self-governing regions in Slovakia. The factor of high autonomy of regions in the financial management and disposal of assets in connection with the identified high degree of failure of the regional control system generates a clear need to strengthen the system of internal control of regions, based on systemic and procedural changes.

Introducing the Contextual Ambidexterity Scale for Public Organizations (CASPO): Scale development and initial evidence

Contextual ambidexterity describes the organizational capacity of being simultaneously able to adapt and change in the face contextual requirements while keeping alignment and predictability. Contextual ambidexterity has been recognized as an appropriate explanation of organizational performance, and its influence has already permeated accounts of public organizations’ dynamics. We join this line of reasoning by suggesting that some specific characteristics of public organizations call for refinement of the contextual ambidexterity concept, and the correspondent evolution in measuring this organizational ability, thus introducing the Contextual Ambidexterity Scale for Public Organizations (CASPO). We suggest going beyond the original measure of alignment and adaptability created by Gibson and Birkinshaw (2004), to include psychological safety, reflexive spaces, and flexibility as sub-dimensions of adaptability and imprinting, rulefollowing and shared vision as sub-dimensions of alignment. On the basis of a sample of civil servants (n=200), we used exploratory factor analysis to identify a six-dimensional solution covering alignment and adaptability. Using another sample of civil servants (n=200), we used confirmatory factor analysis to test CASPO’s construct validity and regression analysis in testing the criterion validity. The results reveal that CASPO shows appropriate metric qualities and that it surpasses Gibson and Birkinshaw’s (2004) scale in predicting both their measure of generic organizational performance and a measure of performance specific for public organizations. This study contributes to the creation of sound measures of relevant concepts explaining the performance of public organizations.

Public management in the education sphere: Prospects for realizing human capital in the development of knowledge management technologies

The study aims to form and test a knowledge management model for universities, which made it possible to identify the most influential factors and their relationship with knowledge management processes. The sample of the study (N = 100) included members of the administrations of the United Arab Emirates universities, senior students (graduate students) and teachers. The data were collected based on a Google Forms questionnaire (65 questions). The model includes 6 main factors: leadership, organizational culture, organizational structure, human resources, information technology, measurement and control. It is assumed that the favourable influence of these factors will contribute to the effective implementation of the knowledge management process. Statistical analysis of the collected data was performed in SPSS and EViews. The model was verified with the help of the root-mean-square error of approximation. The factors "organizational culture", "human resources", "organizational structure", as the processes of creation, storage and use of information demonstrate the highest degree of compliance (value is 0.5 and below). Internal consistency was checked by calculating Cronbach's alpha (total Cronbach alpha is 0.97). To assess the existing relationships between the processes and factors of knowledge management, an analysis of Spearman's ρ correlation was performed (confidence level is 99%). The findings of the study show that the factor "organizational culture" has the greatest impact on the process of creating knowledge, and the factor of the organizational structure considerably affects knowledge management. It has been concluded that information technology is the least influential factor in the knowledge management process. The model demonstrates that the greatest influence of the “leadership” factor can be observed in the context of the process of applying knowledge. The validity of the model makes it possible to argue that it can be used as a public policy tool for the implementation of knowledge management initiatives in universities. The practical significance of the research lies in the fact that on the basis of the model described in the study, it is possible to perform a preliminary assessment of the knowledge assets of universities in order to improve the process of knowledge transfer in education and research. The model will provide university administrations with an opportunity to identify areas for improvement in order for the knowledge management process to be more effective, which ultimately should result in the creation of human capital that meets modern needs.

Managing teacher turnover in regional schools

Employee resourcing comprising employment activities such as human resource planning, employee recruitment, selection, and adaptation, or retention planning and managing employee turnover seems to be a critical function of school management. It enables school managers to ensure the school has quality teachers and other employees it needs to achieve the expected objectives of the school. The biggest challenges of school managers in employee resourcing involve retaining teachers and dealing with teacher turnover. Based on the example of Czech regional schools, the article aims to discuss the current challenges of school managers in employee resourcing in regional schools and define possible ways to deal with the issue of retaining teachers and teacher turnover. The article applies findings of the authors' questionnaire survey on the practice of employee resourcing in Czech regional schools with the focus on the teachers' adaptation as a critical tool for retaining teachers. The authors' questionnaire survey was carried out in the second half of the school year 2018/2019 and in the first half of the school year 2019/2020. The respondents included managers of Czech preschools, elementary schools, and high schools. The answers were obtained from 19% of schools (116 out of 600 addressed schools). The findings show that surveyed regional schools can successfully deal with the challenges in employee resourcing, however, they should apply a more systematic approach, especially to the teachers' adaptation that could help them to deal with the challenge in retaining teachers and reducing the teacher turnover.

Job satisfaction of public social workers

The profession of a social worker is one of the most important professions for the functioning of a household and society as a whole. A key feature of this type of activity is that an employer does not have economic benefits associated with the tasks that a social worker performs. The study aims to determine the components of job satisfaction of public social workers and to conduct a quantitative analysis of the dependence of these components on factors of the external (professional) environment. The research methodology is focused on considering the object as a system. To achieve a goal, other studies were analyzed with the allocation of categorical data of satisfaction components and external (professional) environment factors. Using the statistical method, categorical data are presented in the form of frequencies to conduct a quantitative analysis of the dependence of satisfaction components on external (professional) environment factors, using the correlation coefficient. The study focused on two categories - job satisfaction and the external (professional) environment. The most significant components of job satisfaction are interpersonal relationships and commitment to an organization; the most significant factors of the external (professional) environment are the interaction of social workers with different population groups and compliance with the law and regulations. On the other hand, the least significant components of job satisfaction are social connections and wages, and the least significant factors of the external environment are professional burnout and personal life. A positive relationship was established between the components of job satisfaction and factors of the external (professional) environment. This indicates that job satisfaction components have an inverse relationship with external environment factors such as rules and norms. The research results are applicable in the field of public policy development, as well as for managers of public institutions, in particular, human resource management.