Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 30th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Panel: COVID-19 and Organisational Changes in Public Adminis Author(s) Corina Georgiana Antonovici National School of Political Studies and Public Administration Bucharest Romania Savulescu Carmen, Dogaru (Cruceanu) Tatiana-Camelia, Diaconu David, Dogaru (Cruceanu) Tatiana-Camelia, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania Title Learning organisations in the public sector in times of COVID 19. Case of Romania File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The whole world has been facing a health crisis for two years, as well as economic and financial crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The public organizations in Romania had to meet uncertainty conditions and the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. We acknowledge the fact that most public sector organizations in Romania were in an “old-fashioned race” at the beginning of pandemic but they have tried to adapt to this situation. In order to cope with the situation caused by the pandemic and win the race, the public organizations in Romania should: (1) identify the changes in the citizens’ needs and requirements; (2) be flexible enough to respond and to adapt to changes; (3) understand their own capabilities in relation to the needs and requirements of the situation. In view to achieve those objectives and face the challenges of the pandemic, the public sector organizations in Romania should become learning organizations, triggering the creation of behaviours, aimed at developing the culture of organizational learning and lifelong learning, openness to change and development of change management. They should not be characterized by rigidity or an impenetrable attitude towards sharing realities and experiences, but should be open to flexibility and adaptability to changing situations and experiences. The objectives of the paper focus on (1) Identifying and analysing the main defining elements of the learning organization and change management; (2) Identifying the use of the concepts of learning organization and change management in the Romanian public sector organizations, as well as the importance and impact of these concepts in the development of an organization in view to manage the pandemic situation. The paper addresses the following research questions: (1) To what extent do central public organizations in Romania use the learning process in order to develop their organization? (2) Are the Romanian central public organizations learning organizations?; (3) Do we identify change management in the management process of public organizations? In view to respond to the research questions, we shall use the mixed research method, precisely the qualitative method - analysis of documents and interview, as well as the quantitative method - the questionnaire developed by Bruce Britton and adapted for public sector organizations. The questionnaire is adapted by the authors to public organizations, without affecting the core functions that support to identify the characteristics of the public organization as learning organization. Keywords: learning organization, change management, public organizations, ministries
