Title
Organisational Learning as a Cornerstone of the Rule of Law in Public Administration Reforms: The Case of Selected Slovenian Institution
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Abstract
Public administration (PA) must respond to different environmental challenges, which is systematically carried out through PA reforms, as effective and efficient as possible (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011; De Vries & Nemec, 2013; Kovač & Bileišis, 2017). To adapt to the demands of stakeholders, public servants should constantly develop their competencies to achieve common goals in law enforcement, and develop systemic thinking within teams and mental models to implement the Rule of Law (RoL) in individual administrative areas. If organisational learning represents a response to the requirements of the environment, this is especially important in PA, which is subjected to legal regulations and simultaneously to contemporary business conditions. Because these institutions operate in a constantly changing legal, political, economic, and social environment, they must develop innovative approaches in offering new services to meet the expectations of modern society (Rashman, Withers & Hartley, 2009), particularly within the democratic framework of RoL.
The most significant change of the PA in Slovenia recently is represented by the reorganisation of Social Work Centers (SWC) in 2018, after which the previously independent 62 public institutions merged into 16, which resulted in many new organisational structures and legal processes. Given that SWCs perform tasks related to sensitive life situations of individuals in legal-administrative relations, their ability to adapt to users’ needs is of the utmost importance. Changes in the operation of the SWCs, regardless of whether they are internally or externally instigated, are only possible with their continuous organisational learning in order to be lawful as well as successful. Thus, the main goal of the presented study is to analyse the dimensions of organisational learning of SWC as an adjustment to various challenges dealing with implementation of RoL. Namely, organisational learning in PA is researched to a significantly lesser extent than in the private sector, and even lesser in social work area, specifically in the context of RoL, what provides grounds for an original contribution in the field of good public governance.
Proposed methodology: the survey includes questions from the Dimensions of the Learning Organisation Questionnaire, which represents standardised measuring instrument of organisational learning at the individual, team, and organisational levels. The population of the study involves all public servants of the selected SWC (app. 300 employees). To apply results from the quantitative phase to the context of pursuing RoL in specific PA institutions, an in-depth semi-structured interview with the management representative is performed.
We expect the empirical results to confirm our hypothesis that the specific dimensions of organisational learning at SCW as a specific type of PA institution, subjected to the Weberian model, are differently developed, especially those related to the interactions between officials, team work and (less) open communication, which affects change management and thus the RoL implementation. Therefore, to develop organisational learning and consequent successful implementation of public reforms in terms of RoL in social care, it is of crucial importance that public servants primarily identify themselves with the said PA institution, which reflects attitude to the parties in the administrative procedures.
