Annex 1:

1PR: Best Practices for Transforming Managers into Leaders

1. Project description

2.  Project purposes and goals

The project proposal states that transforming public managers into leaders has not yet occurred at any level of government in CEE, even in a CEE country as advanced economically, politically and socially as Hungary, and no CEE research on best practices to transform public managers into leaders has ever been conducted. 

To fill this gap, taking into the account that as one of the more advanced CEE states, Hungary is well-positioned to serve as a “reinvention laboratory” for research in best practices to develop the leadership skills of public administrators, and that lessons learned from research in Hungary are generalizable without much difficulty to the other CEE states, the project was structured into four main phases.

Phase One focused on analyzing existing legal regulations for training senior executives in Hungary’s civil service and interviewing a sample of key Hungarian stakeholders on what they see as the most important leadership (rather than management) skills needed for senior civil servants.

Phase Two included site visits to the Key Executive Program at American University (AU) in Washington, DC to study its curriculum, to the Office of Executive Resources Management, the component of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in Washington, DC that is responsible for administering, certifying and monitoring all aspects of the SES, and to the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia where OPM-sponsored leadership training takes place.

Phase Three included the evaluation of results of site visits and the drawing of a series of pilot tests—including rigorous evaluation protocols—of leadership development for selected groups of senior Hungarian managers.

Phase Four focused on presentations of results of the Key Executive Program, OPM and Federal Executive Institute research on “best practices” and results of interviews with Hungarian stakeholders at NISPAcee and ASPA meetings so that academics can consider piloting similar projects in other CEE countries.

The following main goals were identified:

q       DELIVERABLE 1: Summarize in writing (a) the existing legal regulations on training for senior executives and (b) a set of training requirements for senior civil servants as defined by Hungarian stakeholders.

q       DELIVERABLE 2: Based on the personal interviews and analyses of the two sets of curricula, synthesize in writing a set of preliminary U.S. “best practices” for transforming public managers into leaders. 

q       DELIVERABLE 3: Drawing on these preliminary U.S. “best practices” and the specific training needs expressed by Hungarian stakeholders, propose in writing to the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office and the Hungarian Ministry of Interior a series of pilot tests, including rigorous evaluation protocols, of leadership development for selected groups of senior Hungarian managers.

q       DELIVERABLE 4: Draft at least one article in English and one article in Hungarian that summarizes results of the Key Executive Program, OPM and Federal Executive Institute research on “best practices” and results of interviews with Hungarian stakeholders for publication in peer-reviewed journal articles in the U.S. and Hungary.  Make oral presentations on the research at NISPAcee and ASPA conferences.

3. Project realization

No problems occurred during the project realization. The project team cooperated actively with the government officials, the project implementation went as it was planned, the project timeline was kept as it was planned, all team members, and other participants cooperated actively in the project and fulfilled their roles and responsibilities in time and full quality.

4. Project outputs, outcomes and impacts

            The project as the whole was divided into two segments: (1) doing research and (2) piloting the program. The NASPAA-NISPAcee proposal covered the research phase: the producing of Deliverables 1, 2, 3 and 4, and the costs of conducting and evaluating the pilot were expected to be borne by the Hungarian government, not by NASPAA-NISPAcee. All research goals of the project were realized in full scale.

Main outputs of the project were:

A) Tangible outputs (relevant available documents attached):

-          Teaching materials,

-          Case studies,

-          Curricula of a special course on public leadership,

-          Proposal for Developmental Training of Fotisztviselo, submitted to the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office,

-          Two peer-reviewed papers (Kramer, Bordas).

B) Intangible outputs:

-          The analysis of existing legal regulations on training for senior executives (Fotisztviselo) in Hungary’s civil service,

-          Processing of results of interviews with Hungarian stakeholders (19 stakeholders),

ortant outcomes could be identified. First, the project contributed to institution capacity-building and improved the level of knowledge and skill in the school. Second, by cooperation with the prime minister’s office, the project created awareness about the problem and the basis for the start of regular training in leadership for defined groups of civil servants (Fotisztviselo) in Hungary.