Public Administration Training Research Articles

Professional Training in Public Administration in Romania during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Professional training is a basic element in the professional development of any employee, especially considering the evolution of the last months, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and important economic and social changes. The crisis caused by the pandemic and the disappearance of many jobs, forces employees to professional conversions or to sharpen the area of activity by acquiring new, sometimes challenging skills. The aim of the study is to analyze the professional training activity in the public administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, to identify the advantages and disadvantages of training in the online system, the efficiency of this type of training, as well as the factors that would have a positive impact on a good performance of this activity. The research method is quantitative, based on the opinion survey, through the self-administered questionnaire. Employees are open to training, especially when dealing with new jobs and technologies or simply to stay up to date with the latest information in their field. Employers, in turn, want professional, efficient and motivated employees. Vocational training is a necessary tool to remain competitive in the labor market and to face the challenges of a global economy where digital skills are the key factor.

Teaching policy capacity: A collaborative and constructivist workshop

This article presents an approach for teaching policy capacity to civil servants based on a workshop that took place in 2018 under the auspices of the Government of Prince Edward Island’s Policy Capacity Learning Series. It argues that workshops which introduce civil servants to the concept of policy capacity can enhance skills-based training and knowledge of the policy environment. Through a learner-focused, collaborative and constructivist pedagogy, the workshop involved a group activity where civil servants constructed a visual diagram of their policy environment by categorizing actors, skills, resources, institutions and concepts according to a policy capacity framework. This article discusses the workshop’s planning and delivery requirements which can be used, adapted and improved by practitioners in other jurisdictions. It also provides considerations for future training and education in public administration.

Information Fusion for the Training of Public Administrators: Design of a Composite Indicator through the Integration of AHP and TOPSIS Methods

The article addresses the importance of capacity development among public administrators to ensure the efficient functioning of the state and the provision of quality services to the citizenry. This entails acquiring legal knowledge, ethical principles, and technical skills in areas such as strategic planning, financial management, and policy evaluation. In addressing the evaluation of public administrators' training programs, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods are employed. The methodology delineates the fundamental concepts and key equations to understand the application of these methods in evaluating public administrators' training programs. The findings underscore the significance of specific competencies in public administrators' training. These competencies, combined with comprehensive training encompassing cognitive, attitudinal, and instrumental dimensions, can equip professionals to confront current governmental challenges effectively. The article emphasizes the relevance of capacity development among public administrators and introduces methods such as AHP and TOPSIS to assess and enhance training programs in this field, aiming to bolster the state's capacity to respond efficiently to societal needs.

Effects of Budget Management Training in Public Administration: A Case of Non-financial Managers in Selected Municipalities in South Africa

Skilled personnel are a crucial resource in any organisation. Organisations must attract and retain talented and qualified employees, and municipalities should not be excluded from this requirement. In this regard, the study's goal is to establish whether non-financial managers in Western Cape Administration, South Africa, require budget management training. This study contends that providing training and development to senior management and staff is critical to organisational performance and productivity in achieving organisational goals and objectives. A quantitative study approach was used and a survey questionnaire was sent to a group of employees from the three municipalities, including managers (n=261), for data collection. The data was captured on excel spreadsheets and was analysed using graphs and pie charts. The study discovered a lack of training and development by selected municipalities for managers and personnel in charge of budgetary choices. It was also discovered that decisions are made by politicians and then delegated to managers. Managers do not create projects; they only execute them. Thus, they have no idea how legislators arrived at the budget allocations. This requires involving managers in decision making and providing substantial budgeting process training to them, as well as empowering budget practitioners to achieve congruence between budgets, budgeting processes, project implementation, and anticipated service delivery to residents. The study indicates that staff training and development are critical to organizational success and attaining organizational goals and objectives while providing employee commitment. Municipalities, on the other hand, should reconsider the meaning of training and development. The study proposes that procedures be put in place to ensure that staff receive ongoing financial management and budgeting training to perform their tasks successfully and diligently. Keywords: Training and development, Municipal employees, Budget management, Municipality

Training of Greek Public Administrators in Legal Knowledge Management by Using the Legislation Editing Open Software (LEOS)

The article describes the evolution of an innovative legal interoperability laboratory within the National School of Public Administration and Local Government in Athens, Greece. While critically analysing its general scope, objectives and structure, the knowledge management perspective of an interoperable legal informatics solution for handling big open legal data is brought into focus. In the context of the laboratory, the use of Legislation Editing Open Software (LEOS), a legal informatics tool that has been developed as a European Union ISA2 solution, is highlighted. Different aspects of and lessons learned from the training of public administrators are discussed while assessing this operations support system for potential use as a web-based authoring tool by the Hellenic public service. The evaluation of both the laboratory and the tool was conducted based on expert surveys, and possible upgrades are discussed to make the training of public administration more efficient.

Social work education as foreign policy: an Israeli school of social work in Kenya in the 1960s

ABSTRACT The global growth of social work entailed the transnational translation of professional knowledge and practice, primarily through social work education. The difficulties involved in this process are evident in a case study of an Israeli initiative to establish a school of social work in Kenya in the early 1960s. The school was opened in 1962 and remained active for most of the decade. Its establishment was a part of a drive to further Israeli influence in the emerging states of Africa. Despite the good intentions of the school staff, the effort to transfer social work knowledge from Israel to Kenya was ultimately unsuccessful. The wide gaps between the Israeli and Kenyan contexts, the inability of the Israeli staff to integrate indigenous knowledge into the curriculum and difficulties encountered by the graduates to apply their acquired knowledge in the field, all contributed to the ineffectiveness of the training programme. Growing Israeli reluctance to fund the endeavor and, particularly, a lack of significant continuing support for the school among the Kenyan leadership in the face of calls for Africanization led to the integration of the school into the country’s public administration training programme and its effective closure in 1971.

How Can More Effective Bangladesh Public Administration Training Policy-2003 for Strengthen Accountable Governance: Overview of the Challenges

How Can More Effective Bangladesh Public Administration Training Policy-2003 for Strengthen Accountable Governance: Overview of the Challenges

What Motivates to Transfer of Training?

Training organizations in the public sector, on the other hand, have a mission to arrange training programs for human resource development at all levels. As a result, the training program's goal is to increase trainees' capacity in terms of skill, knowledge, and work behavior (attitude) so that they can offer better service to citizens.The Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC) and Bangladesh Public Service Administration Academy (BCSAA) are responsible for providing civil officials with training. The government has made training and development the highest priority, investing much in this domain. Motivation to the transfer of training has many folds; therefore, this study aims to identify the factors for motivation to transfer of training and find out the relationship of influencing factors for motivation to training transfer.The research took a quantitative method. The respondents have worked in the field and have received training from either BPATC or BCSAA or both training organizations. Using standardized questionnaire item scores ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," data was collected from respondents.This study employed a purposeful random sampling approach. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, an online questionnaire (emailing) was circulated to 1800 participants who had received training from BPATC and BCSAA. A total of 307 respondents participated in the study.A model was developed based on research hypotheses. Model and formulated hypotheses were tested by Regression and Coefficient results, some hypotheses are shown positive and significant impact on the transfer of training. The regression model is significant, according to the results. Furthermore, some factors have a positive effect on motivation to transfer training according to Standardize coefficient value and level of significance (p<.05)

The Low Demand for Public Administration Programs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: What May Be Behind It?

"The importance of public administration (PA) education and training is obvious, any effective public administration system needs an influx of a new and well-educated workforce. Compared to the (relatively) better situation in other Central and Eastern European countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia represent a very specific case – the falling number of students in PA programs threatens the existence of the only programs with international accreditation (those at Masaryk University Brno and Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica). The aim of this paper was to investigate the reasons why so few students apply and enroll in these EAPAA-accredited programs. Qualitative research is used to achieve this goal. In the opinion of the program chairs and our secondary analysis, there are multiple factors behind the very low level of demand which critically threatens the existence of the best master programs in the countries studied. A very specific issue that appears to be unique for both countries is free public university education with unregulated demand. Such an environment, combined with the performance- based funding of public universities and other higher education institutions, where the number of students is a decisive factor in the amount of the public grant to the university, generates an oversupply of places offered to secondary school graduates. The role of other potential barriers for the interest to study public administration is catalyzed by the ‘oversupply’ conditions. The questionnaire, the statements of program chairs, and our secondary analysis confirm that there is a role to be played by monitoring other potential barriers — the fact that programs are run in economics faculties, limited trust in politicians, government and public administration, the system of access to the civil service and salary levels in the public sector."

Factors Influence the Performance of Training Organizations: A Study on Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre

Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC), an apex training organization, is a key player in the development of public sector human resources by offering and arranging high-quality training programs. A current curriculum and qualified training professors and staff are required for quality and effective training. As a result, the study's goals are to identify variables that determine training institution performance and as well measuring factors that influence, or impact training organizations’ performance and policy implications are drawn. A quantitative approach is adopted and as a research technique employs a highly known and frequently utilized structured questionnaire survey instrument. The respondents' data is collected using a purposive sampling approach. For data analysis, a scholarly software program called SPSS is employed. In addition to descriptive statistics, principal component factor analysis is used in this study. Unstandardized Coefficients values with significant levels (p<.001) are used to test stated hypotheses and ANOVA is used to evaluate model significance. For organizational performance, PCA has identified four variables. Factors have high loading values. Among the four hypotheses, regression results confirmed that only one hypothesis ‘training staff relationship’ is having a positive and significant relationship with training organizations’ performance.

INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM OF YOUTH IN CATEGORIES OF LEGAL CULTURE

The article reveals the categories of legal culture as a sphere of individual freedom, which allows a young person to realize own preferences, talents and interests. Each new generation faces to the legal achievements of the predecessors correspond to self-realization and prospects of realizing the collective meaning of social self-development. The analysis of works on the issue testifies to the relevance and multidimensionality of both the problem itself and the methodological approaches to its scientific solution. The formation of legal culture of modern youth is covered in multidisciplinary issues of legal culture, legal awareness of man and young people in particular, legal education, training in pedagogical, psychological, philosophical, sociological, political, economic sciences, culture, public administration and social communications. Legal consciousness is formed in the process of personal development. The humanistic nature of the formation of modern youth’s legal culture is represented by the embodiment of social self-movement, which requires general scientific structure and typology of methods of cognition and transformation of reality in their development and relationships. The main methodology of formation of legal culture as a phenomenon and process is defined by the idea of ​​development.

“To Govern Well is to Govern for All”: Analyzing Manager Behavior in Partisan and Nonpartisan Local Governments

This study examines the behaviors and attitudes of managers in nonpartisan and partisan local systems. It examines relevant literature relating to public service motivation, nonpartisan elections impact on managerial culture, and nonpartisan governance. This study includes a survey of managers in North Carolina in municipalities of 5,000 or more. With an n of 173 we captured respondents’ attitudes, perceptions, motivations, and values as well as demographic characteristics. Our findings suggest that there are significant differences in public administration training, public service motivation, understanding of council’s responsibilities, and questioning of work-life balance between managers in nonpartisan and partisan systems. Supporting these findings, in our interviews, managers touched on two major areas where a partisan and non-partisan context likely influenced operations. These were most evident in areas of differing government function and manager selection.

Transit Ridership of Dhaka Metro Rail

This study focuses on the future ridership of Dhaka’s under-construction metro rail. Dhaka offers an exceptional context with the world’s highest density of population. How the sociocultural condition of the city’s population would impact the future ridership of the metro rail was an interesting question. The data for the study were collected through a structured questionnaire by the participants of a training programme designed for the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited officials and implemented by the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre. The respondents were randomly chosen from six catchment areas of a part of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-6. This paper presents the survey findings using descriptive and inferential statistics. The implications of the findings are discussed. The study findings substantially contribute to the scientific knowledge of urban transportation governance regarding rapid-transit facility development. Moreover, the findings carry policy implications for city planners.

Uma análise do perfil dos secretários de saúde: interfaces entre saúde e os processos político-eleitorais

ABSTRACT The present paper aims to systematize information on health leaders inserted in state and municipal governments, to reflect on technical, academic and political influences in shaping their trajectories, seeking to contribute to the design an overview of Unified Health System (SUS) management at subnational bodies. The study is supported by research from secondary sources, including official databases, government portals and commercial news. Information from the secretaries of the 26 states and their capitals, in addition to the Federal District, in office in May 2021, was processed, generating 53 resumes, that were categorized as specialists (79%), health professionals (75%), career politicians (25%) and businesspeople (19%). Despite the significant partisan influence, a process of formation of bureaucratic cadres by the parties was found, beyond the electoral dispute. Of the thirteen career politicians identified, eleven were also typified by the analysis as ‘specialized’, questioning senses about the opposition between ‘technical’ versus ‘political’ profiles, suggesting the relevance of the intersections of trajectories. An exceptionality of technical insulation of health was not confirmed. Thus, the image that political party forces are antagonistic to academic training and experience in public administration is unrealistic, suggesting that health is simultaneously specialized and politicized.

An Effectiveness Study on Policy Level Training Course: A Case from Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, Bangladesh

The civil servants are treated as the principal-agent of the government for providing service and coordinating among different segments of society; it is better to provide appropriate training to them. Bangladesh public administration training centre (bpatc) is providing capacity enhancement training for the civil servants. The study aims attempt: to identify the effectiveness of the existing curriculum of the policy level courses for senior civil servants; to examine training methods whether those are relevant for curriculum delivery as need-based or not, if so then how much; to identify some strong and weak points as a means of 'center of excellence' of bangladesh public administration training centre (bpatc) and to visualize managerial implications and provide policy suggestions for ensuring the effectiveness of policy level training courses for the senior civil servants of bangladesh. This study adopted semi-structured questionnaires developed by the evaluation department of bpatc are assessed and presented in this report to obtain study objectives. Analyzing results found that in training modules, training methods, contents, some academic, and non-academic components at a satisfactory level. Results also provide some managerial implications for the future development of training courses and training content development. Bpatc organizes several training courses, but this study has given focused only on senior staff course (ssc). Finally, the study findings have implications to enrich the training curriculum development of policy-level courses and training management for the senior officials as well.

Professional training of future specialists in public administration as a psychological and pedagogic problem

This article is devoted to the study of professional training of future specialists in the field of public administration. Attention is paid to the analysis of the concept of «professional training». The multi-aspect nature of this phenomenon is shown. The system of professional training and characteristics of types of training in public administration are presented. The article shows a modern view of the problem of training future specialists in the field of public administration, where professional training is presented as a process aimed more at the formation of knowledge, skills and abilities and less at the development of personal characteristics. Special emphasis is placed on the need to develop professionally important qualities of future specialists. Professionally important qualities of future specialists necessary for effective professional activity in the public administration system are identified and described. In conclusion, the author emphasises the need to create a "pedagogic model for the formation of professional readiness of future specialists in the field of public administration", taking into account the specifics of professional activity in this field.

Public Administration Training in Basic Police Academies: A 50-State Comparative Analysis

Recent controversial interactions of police with the public have become an issue of important concern for public and governmental leaders, who have openly questioned current models of police training and their effectiveness. This study is asking whether basic police academies utilize curricula that reflect the contemporary challenges of modern policing today and prepare recruits to become not only police officers but also competent and skilled, street-level bureaucrats who can provide an effective and impartial service to their increasingly diverse communities. The aim of this study is to quantify, analyze, and compare the content dedicated to the public administration domain in state-mandated basic training curricula across all 50 states. The study utilizes a mixed-methods research design with content analysis. Data were generated from 49 basic training curricula (with one state not having mandated training standards) and 17 interviews with police training officials. The result shows that despite the paradigm shift in the role of the modern-day police officer, police academies have made little to no progress in bridging the gap between the academy curriculum and the practicality of police work. On average, only 3.21% of basic training curricula are explicitly dedicated to public administration training—a training focused on public service values of fundamental importance to the practice of law enforcement. This article gives public administration scholars a voice in the national debate about the crisis in police–public relations by contributing to the literature on police training reform from a much-needed public administration lens.

Public Administration and Management Training in South African Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges: Unpacking Its Relevance in the Contemporary Time

Public Administration and Management Training in South African Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges: Unpacking Its Relevance in the Contemporary Time

Developing public administration education by focusing on difficult key concepts: The case of Nigeria and Ghana

Students’ understanding of public administration (PA) plays an important role in ensuring the quality of human resources that African universities produce. Using a quantitative approach and sample N ​= ​650, this paper draws on empirical evidences of students lived expereinces of what they consider difficult in the study of PA in Ghana and Nigeria; establishing relations between selected variables and perceived difficulties. The study concludes that, African university students not having previous backgrounds in PA and syllabus being too wide accounts for difficulties in the study of PA; there is a statistically significant difference regarding bureaucracy, ethics, corruption, and arms of government between lower levels and upper level African university students on the perceived difficulty in the study of PA and there is a statistically significant difference between Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science Public Administration among African university students in all concepts observed except government, public policy, politics and defining PA. We suggest teaching PA is remodeled as a study of classroom training that places students understanding at its core. F0B7 • Students find some concepts difficult to study in PA which has negative implications for the development of Africa and its higher education. F0B7 • Effective university training in PA is crucial for Africa’s public sector and its educational systems. F0B7 • Government reforms at making teaching student-centered are critical at reducing student difficulties in the study of PA and improving Africa’s public sector. F0B7 • Evidences from mainstream science courses provides hope for achieving simplifying difficult concepts in the study of PA to foster Africa’s education and its development.

Progress and challenges in the training and qualification of professionals and public administrators of the Brazilian Unified National Health System in food and nutrition.

Progress and challenges in the training and qualification of professionals and public administrators of the Brazilian Unified National Health System in food and nutrition.