Evaluation of the key factors of effective leadership in the process of implementing public sector reforms of the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Public sector reform is one of the Government of the Republic of Serbia strategic goals. The strategy envisages the improvement of the human resources management system, which includes the development of professional capacities. In order for public sector reform to achieve its contribution, it is necessary to develop effective leadership at all levels. The effectiveness of the leadership process is influenced by many factors. One of the factors refers to the characteristics of the leader, his abilities and skills to make and implement optimal decisions. The decision-making process itself also depends on the circumstances, i.e. the situation in which the decision is made, as well as the environment that affects the decisionmaking process. There are situations that are certain, where the decision maker has sufficient information and can immediately see the effects of each alternative before implementation. In that case, decision-making is significantly facilitated, because it boils down to the technical problem of quality assessment of alternatives and their comparison. But, in most cases, the circumstances, that is, the environment is uncertain and complex. The decision-maker in such situations usually does not have enough information and therefore it is difficult or impossible to check their effectiveness and develop potential alternatives. The main goal of the work is to use the new multicriteria decision-making method PIPRECIA to evaluate and define the importance of key factors influencing the behavior of leaders and contributing to the effectiveness of the leadership process important for the implementation of reforms in the Republic of Serbia public sector. The results of this method application indicate that the key factor influencing the leader's behavior is C5-Characteristics of the leaders. The results provide important information to managers of public organizations on how to manage change more effectively.