The evolution of the Public Administration in the era of Innovation

31 December 2019

In the collective imagination, the term Public Administration is often associated with bureaucracy, with all that it entails.

It is a very complex area that goes far beyond the eternal dispute related to the efficiency of the institutions with which the citizen interfaces. The PA sector is undergoing a transformation within itself from all points of view, and in the last few decades, its conformation has changed radically.

From the privatization policies of the Nineties to the state organization of the Region passing through the creation – or elimination – of some provinces, up to the most recent financial and economic crisis on a global scale, PAs have changed their structure, actors and objectives, both on the plan legislative rather than organizational.

“In recent years the challenges to which PAs have been subjected have evolved faster than the competences present within them” – explains Enrico Deidda Gagliardo, Scientific Director of the Master in Public Management and Innovation – Consider, for example, the challenges of the digital transformation in the face of raising the average age of public employees; to the challenges of change management in the face of specialized verticalization of skills”.

Each process linked to the relationship between public, private and citizens has cultural and social consequences, which make the presence of experts necessary with a new mind-set. “Public administrations no longer need managers with exclusively vertical skills – continues Deidda Gagliardo – but of ‘Public Value Managers’, or managers with a transversal approach and able to support the administration in creating public value, improving the level of well-being. of users and citizens”.

Countless competencies are required today, such as “rethinking the Public Administration in the light of Design thinking and simplification of processes and services, also using Project Management and Change Management; governing the digital transformation, with a focus on cybersecurity; know and use the policies and tools of sustainability and social innovation, as well as the principles of marketing and public communication” – says Deidda Gagliardo.

Experts, therefore, capable of contributing to the creation of public value, understood as improving the level of social, economic and environmental well-being of citizens. A challenge that requires specific preparation and skills, but also a vision of a far-sighted whole to start new managerial practices with a significant impact on society.