Focus on New Work in Public Administration

Presentation of the evaluation results of the New Work strategy of the Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs of the State of Brandenburg (MIK) on March 7, 2025

At this year's Knowledge Café of the Brandenburg Digital Agency on March 7, 2025, the MIK and the NIPAG were given the opportunity to present the implementation and evaluation of the ministry's New Work strategy to an expert audience from science and administrative practice.

Background

The term “New Work” is on everyone's lips. It refers to an approach that describes the transformation towards a modern working world. The term encompasses not only new forms of work and working models, but also changes to social structures and employee expectations. It thus includes the organizational, social and individual levels.

This transformation is already being actively implemented at the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs (MIK): forward-looking forms of work are being enthusiastically introduced as part of a pilot project. The National Institute for Public Administration Germany (NIPAG) is playing a central role in the implementation of the New Work strategy by providing scientific support and evaluating the implementation.

Innovative working models in the MIK and the scientific backing of the NIPAG

At this year's Knowledge Café of the Brandenburg Digital Agency on March 7, 2025, the MIK and the NIPAG- represented by our research associates Sebastian Leskien and Felix Handermann - were given the opportunity to present the implementation and evaluation of the ministry's New Work strategy to an expert audience from science and administrative practice.

First, the MIK presented its current New Work strategy, which is currently being tested in several pilot units and is characterized by a modern room and workplace design, flexible working time models and a modern communication culture. While representatives of the ministry, including Andreas Donderski, Kati Storl and Nadine Kalisch, presented the new working approaches, our research associates Sebastian Leskien and Felix Handermann provided insights into the current interim results, which were determined as part of a well-founded analysis of qualitative and quantitative surveys. Thanks to the NIPAG evaluation, it was not only possible to show how modern work concepts can be implemented in practice, but also what effects these approaches - for example with regard to team communication, self-organization and (health-promoting) workplace design - have on the well-being and satisfaction of employees. The research institute thus provides essential findings that are groundbreaking for the active design of new forms of collaboration at MIK.

The Brandenburg Digital Agency's Knowledge Café is an interactive format in which impulses from administrative practice and science flow together in equal measure. In a total of 60 minutes, the participants were given a concise insight into current projects relating to the modernization of public administration. A subsequent open discussion gave all participants the opportunity to ask the speakers questions and find out about modern working concepts.