Effektives Change Management in der öffentlichen Verwaltung

: Erfahrungsgewinn durch Befragung von Verwaltungsbediensteten im Kontext der Implementierung der eGov-Suite

Abstract

In public administration, for example, change projects can be initiated due to new laws, an improved focus on citizens’ requirements or internal process optimizations, which means that public administration is characterized by changes. A closer look at the topic of “change management” reveals that people have considerable influence on whether change projects are successful or not. The individual attitudes and basic needs of public employees must be considered when making changes, otherwise resistance or unacceptance will arise. This paper aims at developing a better understanding of the mindset of public employees and at gaining insights into their experiences with change projects that have already been completed. Recommendations for actions should derive from this, based on findings from the literature and the results of the quantitative study, in order to enable effective change management for future projects. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical foundations and the latest state of research, based on relevant literature and current studies. In addition, the methodological approach of the quantitative study is described in detail due to the research design. This includes the creation, data collection and evaluation of the questionnaire, which is structured exclusively with closed questions. These cover socio-demographic aspects, personal attitude concerning changes, interaction-related affinity for technology (ATI scale) and self-assessment of basic character. In addition, public employees are asked to rate the importance and their satisfaction with specific aspects of completed change projects. The results are presented by descriptive analyses and checked by correlation ones in order to test the hypotheses. After a successful pre-test with participants who met the target group criteria the ten-day data collection began by sending out the questionnaire to 135 public employees. The response rate was around 64 percent, which means that 86 questionnaires were fully completed. Over half (n=46) of the respondents are over 50 years old, followed by around 30 percent (n=26) in the 36-50 age group. Almost 60 percent (n=51) are female, while only 26 percent (n=22) are male, and the rest don’t provide any information. In view of the advanced age of the respondents, an average technology affinity value of 3,63 was achieved, which corresponds with a medium interaction-related technology affinity. The result shows a fundamentally high openness to changes with almost 77 percent (n=66) of respondents. A medium positive linear correlation between affinity for technology and attitude towards changes can be demonstrated. However, there is no significant correlation between age or professional experience and attitude.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Nicole Scheidleder (Supervisor)