Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 30th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Main Conference Theme Author(s) Octavian Moldovan Babes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca Romania Daniela COTORANUPhD candidate, Doctoral School of Public Administration and Public Polices, Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. E-mail: daniela.cotoranu@fspac.ro. Title HOW RESILIENT ARE CIVIL SERVANTS FROM THE ROMANIAN RURAL ENVIRONMENT? AN EXPLORATORY STUDY File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Octavian Moldovan Abstract Introduction Romanian public administration has gone through multiple processes of transformation and innovation, but it still faces multiple issues not only in terms of efficiency and effectiveness but also in terms of the attention paid to the needs of civil servants. Although resilience can significantly influence the performance of employees and organizations, the phenomenon is under-analyzed in the case of Romanian civil servants. The present research aimed to identify the level of resilience of rural civil servants, the main factors affecting resilience and the main measures to strengthen the resilience which are currently used (knowingly or unknowingly) by local institutions. Methodology An online questionnaire was sent to rural public institutions between December 2019 and January 2020, obtaining 103 responses from civil servants working in 19 rural communities from multiple regions in Romania. Results and discussion The data shows that the level of resilience of civil servants in rural areas is 81.5 points out of 105 maximum points, which indicates a relatively high level of resilience. According to the theory, the main factors that affect resilience are: working conditions, quantity of tasks, stress and pressure at work, lack of flexibility, but also lack of experience, shifting/transferring tasks from one person to another, verbal violence and the lack of patience of citizens. According to our results, seniority at work (the more seniority in public administration the higher the level of resilience), self-confidence (more self-confidence increases resilience) and age (younger employees tend to have a lower level of resilience than older people) seem to be relevant factors. Other factors such as workload, the level of education, stress, gender, total work experience and their position/function (execution or decision-making) do not seem to affect resilience. Applying mindfulness strategies, an efficient organization of tasks, developing skills to more effectively manage a workplace crisis situation, providing mutual support, encouraging risk-taking and eliminating unnecessary tasks (reduction of the number of tasks) are the main measures that can be adopted in order to improve the level of resilience.
