Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 26th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Management and Leadership in the Public Sector Author(s) Magdalena Iordache-Platis University of Bucharest Bucharest Romania Iucu Oana, Title Enhancing Leadership in the Public Sector; specific Competences and Determinants in the sharing Economy File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Magdalena Iordache-Platis Abstract Many changes are taking place in all economic sectors, due to international and national challenges. The contemporary economy is more than ever influenced by the pressure of digitalization and informational technologies. Sharing is part of the contemporary institutional development in all types of industries, from primary and secondary to tertiary sectors. In public area, more attention is given to transparency, to the relationship between public administration and citizens, to efficiency and decision making processes. These issues refer to the individual capacity of dealing with daily professional challenges, meaning leadership competences. The scope of the research is to reveal if there is a gap between what competences are generated to graduates from Public Administration field to those that are needed in the current context of public field in order to build up a strategy for enhancing leadership in public sector. Main objectives of the paper are: • To explain the sharing economy and its challenges for public sector • To identify the leadership competences that are generated from higher education studies in the Public Administration field and the gap between these and what specific competences are really needed • To build up a strategic model for enhancing leadership in public sector. The research methodology includes a literature review in order to clarify the current state of main concepts, a web-based study to identify several examples of teaching and learning leadership in public administration field in different European higher education institutions. A first questionnaire has been developed and addressed to students from Public Administration specialization at the end of their second year of study at the undergraduate level in order to understand the current teaching and learning process, in general, and from leadership competences transfer, in particular. A second questionnaire has also been created and addressed to master students, as graduates from undergraduate level, many of them being also employed in public sector in order to select two sets of competences: competences that were required at the working place and achieved from the graduated studies and competences that were required, but not achieved. Finally, a focus group was designed in order to clarify the main elements of the strategic model for enhancing leadership in public sector. Main findings of the research reveal that leadership competences are not much provided from teaching at Public Administration specialization, but from some curricular activities and many extracurricular ones. It is important what is taught, but more important is how is taught, and then, how is what was done discovered that it was right in order to be repeated or improved. A model for enhancing leadership in public sector is built from the current identified gap between received competences and needed competences. Principal conclusions are: • Leadership competences in public sector are more visible in the sharing economy • Examples of good practice are very helpful not only in proper actions and results of decision making processes, but also in teaching and learning processes • Students’ perceptions are of real input in the process of institutional development.
