Transformation of the administration

Geschäftsunterlagen auf Bürotisch. Eine Person hält ein Smartphone in der Hand.
© stock.adobe.com / everythingpossible

Contact person

Porträtfoto von Prof. Dr. Jan Ziekow vor gelbem Hintergrund
© FÖV
Director

– Prof. Dr. Jan Ziekow

Email: jan.ziekow@foev-speyer.de
Phone: +49 6232 654-385

The challenges have grown

The challenges facing government, business and society have grown significantly in recent years and will continue to do so. Crisis-like escalations are becoming a permanent feature of the landscape. Examples we all know about include:

  • The economic and financial crisis
  • The sharp upturn in the number of asylum seekers
  • The increase in extremist, religious and politically motivated threats
  • The COVID-19 pandemic
  • Natural disasters caused by climate change,
  • a war in central Europe, and much more.
     

Furthermore, there is a rapidly expanding corpus of knowledge, an increasing fragmentation of discourses, evolving expectations of decision-making behaviour in complex structures, and shifting demands on public sector skills.

Text graphic: 61 per cent of employees in the public sector will retire by 2040. The federal administration is to be organised in a climate-neutral way by 2030.’.
Sources: German Federal Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) – Scientific Services. 2020. Demographic change in public service. SS 6 - 3000 - 009/20 (left) and German Federal Parliament. 2022. Briefing by the German Federal Government. Climate Protection Report 2022, page 45. https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/20/037/2003790.pdf (in German only) (right)

All this requires a flexible and rapid response in a dynamically changing environment. This complex process of change can be described as a phase of transformation. The transformation processes necessary as a result need to be considered systematically. The central question of the research area that addresses the 'transformation of the administration' is therefore:

What approach should 'the' public administration take in order to ensure its organisational capability and to recognise the relevant tasks of the future at an early stage, given the differentiated consideration of levels and functions?

In order to remain capable of fulfilling its tasks in this sense, the administration must act in a transformational way, fundamentally changing and proactively shaping the future. This requires both a comprehensive, integrated and sectoral reorganisation, which we analyse and conceptualise in relation to each other in this research area.

We analyse the management of complex decision-making and design processes both systematically and empirically. From this, we develop concrete, sector-specific concepts for institutional arrangements, action strategies and decision-making methods. Throughout the entire process, public administration is viewed as a horizontally and vertically networked system.

The issues raised in this research area are directly pertinent to the long-term sustainability of public administration in Germany and its capacity to influence the future. To ensure its ability to act in the future, it is essential that it adapts its structures and processes itself to align with current developments and evolving expectations in decision-making behaviour.

The research fields covered in this research area

Text graphic with the four topic areas: Identification and assignment of tasks, Institutional transformation of the administration, Methodology and data foundation for decision making, Networked decision making
Click here to go to the website of the Institute for Regulatory Impact Assessment and Evaluation (Institut für Gesetzesfolgenabschätzung und Evaluation - InGFA)

Selected projects in this research area

Projects

Knowledge management in public administration

To respond effectively to the systemic challenges of multidimensional transformation of the administration, it is essential to optimise existing governance resources. Knowledge represents one of these critical resources for managing a wide range of administrative tasks. In this way, knowledge helps to improve the capacity of the administration to act by enabling administrative staff to access relevant information, to check the quality of this information, to derive knowledge from it and to make decisions based on this knowledge on how to carry out their tasks. The aim of the research project is to develop a concept for integrated knowledge management in order to make existing knowledge available for administrative practice in the best possible way in the future.

Transformation of Public Administration Duration: 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2026
Hand of one person on a laptop with a digital network to several people.
© Pixabay / Buffik
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Projects

Predictive task-based skills planning and development

Demographic change is leading to a change in the structure of work in public authorities. The number of employable people will go down, the workforce will become older and more heterogeneous, and it will become much more difficult to recruit newly qualified staff in competition with the private sector. In addition to demographic change, various changes (e.g. the introduction of new technologies to convert analogue processes into digital ones) and new tasks, as well as the digital transformation itself (i.e. the adaptation of entire business processes or models to reflect the digital changes) are leading to new ways of working in public authorities, which mandate that employees adapt quickly to these changes. The development of skills needs to be planned proactively to ensure the performance of the administration in the future. The project builds on this need by focusing on skills planning and development in public administrations. The aim of the project is to develop a basic methodological model for forecasting tasks and the associated skills requirements, which is specifically tailored to the differentiation in levels and tasks in public administrations.

Transformation of Public Administration Duration: 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2026
A woman places sticky notes on the wall in an office in front of the team
© Unsplash / Jason Goodman
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Projects

Support for the implementation of the Act to Strengthen Children and Youth (KJSG)

The project forms part of the reforms initiated by the Act to Strengthen Children and Youth (Kinder- und Jugendstärkungsgesetz - KJSG), which was passed in 2021. It serves to provide support to local authorities that need to restructure their administrative structures in this context. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), the National Institute for Public Administration Germany is supporting a pilot test of new administrative structures in the field of integration support for children and young people with disabilities in up to five model communities until December 2025. The project comprises the development of a pilot test concept, scientific support for the model local authority areas and the creation of transfer services based on the findings. These will take the form of roadmaps and guidelines, which will be made available to all local authorities. This will facilitate the nationwide restructuring of the relevant administrative structures in the local authority areas from 2028 onwards.

Transformation of Public Administration Duration: 01/01/2022 - 31/12/2025 | Funding: Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
Four people, each holding a piece of the puzzle and putting them together.
© pexels / Diva Plavalaguna
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Projects

Open data - A user-specific application and requirement analysis

The concept of open data is gaining significant traction in German politics and administration. In the coming years, the provision of publicly funded administrative data is to be expanded and access to the data is to be simplified. The publication of administrative data plays an important role in the context of open government efforts to foster greater trust between the political, administrative, civil society and business sectors. A number of open data platforms are already in operation in Germany. However, there is currently limited insight into the extent to which existing offerings align with the needs of the respective user groups. Against this background, the primary objective of the research project initiated by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI) was to identify potential for improvement in order to facilitate the continued development of open data offerings in Germany in line with demand. In the initial phase of the project, the national metadata portal for open administrative data in Germany (GovData.de) was selected as the focus of the empirical research. The objective was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the needs and experiences of users of open administrative data in Germany.

Transformation of Public Administration Duration: 01/09/2019 - 15/06/2022
Successful businesswoman holding a laptop and analyzing data on a large digital screen with graphs and charts.
© iStock.com / gorodenkoff
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Selected publications in this research area

Publications (Mainly in German)

Evaluation des Dienstleistungsauftrags "Initiative Bürgerdialog Stromnetz - Projektphase ab 2020"

Das FÖV hat von 2020 bis 2024 im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz den Bürgerdialog Stromnetz evaluiert. Der Bürgerdialog Stromnetz ist eine Initiative, die mit einer Vielzahl von Formaten über den Stromnetzausbau und über die bestehenden Beteiligungsmöglichkeiten informiert.

Speyer Research Reports Speyerer Forschungsberichte Nr. 307
[Translate to English:] Cover des Speyerer Forschungsberichts 307
Article
Publications (Mainly in German)

Evaluation des Planungssicherstellungsgesetzes (PlanSiG)

Ziel der Evaluation war es erstens, einen Eindruck darüber zu gewinnen, inwieweit in der Verfahrenspraxis von den Instrumenten des PlanSiG Gebrauch gemacht wurde. Zweitens sollten die durch die Anwendung der Instrumente entstehenden Auswirkungen auf die Verfahrensbeteiligten untersucht werden. Das dritte Ziel war es, zu prüfen, welche Instrumente sich auch nach Außerkrafttreten des Gesetzes zur Weiterführung eignen und welche Modifikationen ggf. vorzunehmen sind.

Speyer Research Reports Speyerer Forschungsberichte Nr. 304
[Translate to English:] Cover des Speyerer Forschungsberichts 304
Article
Publications (Mainly in German)

Qualifica Digitalis AP 5 Analyse des Rechtsstatus

Welche Kompetenzen benötigt der deutsche Öffentliche Dienst, um den Herausforderungen der digitalen Transformation angemessen – und nach Möglichkeit sogar proaktiv – begegnen zu können?

  • Margrit Seckelmann
  • Martin Humberg
Further Publications Arbeitspapier
FÖV-Pfeil als Ersatz für ein Coverbild
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