Public administrations at different levels of government across all European countries have had to deal with economic crises (e.g., European debt crisis), global health emergencies (e.g., Covid-19 pandemic), environmental disasters (e.g., forest fires and floods) or large-scale terrorist attacks (e.g., Paris, Brussels, Utøya) over the last decade. Such major disruptive events draw attention to the distinctly temporal dimensions of public sector organizing, and raise key questions about the temporal dynamics and transformations of public organizations – and their staff – at the supranational, national and local levels of government. Participants of TED2022 address whether and, if so, how internal and external shifts in bureaucrats’ environment affect the functioning and performance of public administrations, test the resilience of their current practices and organizational forms, as well as impact upon civil servants’ behavioural roles and practices.

Keynote speakers:
Cristina Corduneaunu-Huci (Central European University Vienna)
Hussein Kassim (University of East Anglia)
Muiris MacCarthaigh (Queen’s University Belfast)
Kenneth J. Meier (American University)
Vitalis Nakrošis (Vilnius University)
Katarina Staroňová (Comenius University Bratislava)

• Administrative reforms: How do bureaucrats react to shifts in their organizational environment?
• Public administration in crisis: Perfect time to change the tune?
• Time and leadership: What do we know about administrative leadership in and for an uncertain time?
• Bureaucrats as (quasi)politicians?
• Lobbying (of) bureaucracies: Who lobbies whom, how and why?
• Studying bureaucrats over time: Temporal dynamics and longitudinal research designs in public administration