At this year's  EGPA23 conference, our team presented the ongoing activities of the chair. The six papers presented are part of individual research and dissertation projects.   

From the joint project with the trade union youth of the "dbb beamtenbund und tarifunion", the paper "What makes an attractive job in the public sector in the post-Covid era? Insights from young German public sector professionals" was presented. In this paper, Drathschmidt et al. analyze the post-pandemic job preferences of German civil servants. 

As part of the DIGILOG research project, two papers were also presented at the conference. Jakob Kühler presented his dissertation concept entitled  "Stories of Digital Change: Integrating Institutional Logics and Sensemaking Perspectives"  at the EGPA PhD symposium. Furthermore, first results of the conducted case studies were presented within the framework of the paper  "Strategic types of local governments' digital transformation: Findings from three cases in Continental European federal countries". 

Our team also presented a paper on "Narratives of agility: The perspective of German public sector employees". This study examines how managers and employees in public sector organizations understand agility as a management fashion which is becoming more widespread and what image they draw of this trend in their respective environments. 

In addition to these contributions, Daniela Großmann and Nicolas Drathschmidt presented recent papers from their dissertation projects. 

As such, Nicolas Drathschmidt presented the results of his analysis of the relationships between bureaucracy, ICT use and technostress under the title  "The pathologization of digital transformation. How red tape, formalization and technostress interact."  At the doctoral colloquium, Daniela Großmann also presented her dissertation concept  "The Role of Financing Instruments in Driving Innovative Work Behavior. 

Nicolas Drathschmidt; Isabella Proeller; Jakob Kühler; Jan Adam; Daniela Großmann

Abstract: This study investigates which individual job characteristics such as salary, job security, work organisation and infrastructure, young public sector employees prefer. Using a hierarchical individualised limit conjoint analysis (HILCA), 316 employees were surveyed to identify their preferred job attributes. Preliminary results show the changing dynamics of workplace preferences in the post-Covid era, particularly with regard to the increasing importance of flexible working arrangements and technical equipment. The study makes a methodological contribution through the use of an innovative conjoint analysis and an empirical contribution by providing public sector managers with evidence-based decision-making tools for optimising work arrangements.

Jakob Kühler; Justine Marienfeldt; Isabella Proeller; Sabine Kuhlmann; Tobias Polzer

Abstract: Although local governments have been facing the issue of digitalization for nearly twenty years now, many are still determining their approaches to meet this issue (Manoharan & Ingrams, 2018). Nevertheless, the ever-changing external demands and internal expectations regarding the level of technological, procedural, and organizational transformation present local governments with additional challenges to be addressed (Breaugh et al., 2023; Janowski, 2015). As a consequence, both local decision makers and public administration leaders need to constantly re-adjust their organizations’ visions and goals (Lee, 2023). This may involve formulating strategies and planning for subsequent implementation, including resource allocation and capability development (Andrews et al., 2006). Moreover, this process of strategy formulation often runs in parallel with the implementation of existing reform projects (and these reform project have, vice versa, often a digitization component), adding to the complexity of the task (Weiser et al., 2020). In short, it is of relevance to study strategic management actions in the realm of local governments’ digitalization, where public managers address questions related to organizational structure, technology adoption, and capability building. Buildung upon three qualitative case studies of local governments and emplyoing Miles and Snows (1978) seminal strategtic types, we raise the following research question: Which elements of strategic types can be observed in local governments’ digital
transformation, and how do these elements align?

Jakob Kühler; Nicolas Drathschmidt; Daniela Großmann

Abstract: Despite growing interest, both researchers and practitioners lack a clear understanding of agility. This study aims to alleviate this research puzzle by investigating how managers and employees in public sector organisations make sense of agility as a spreading management fashion. We uncover the existing narratives of agility, their elements and scope, as it is argued that narratives as innovation carriers ultimately influence the realised form and materialized features of the concept in organisations. Based on a multi-case study involving 33 interviews and 24 responses to a qualitative online survey, we provide insights into what public managers and employees understand (and, more importantly, don't understand) as agility and how they weave it into their existing organisational reality.

Nicolas Drathschmidt

Abstract: This study tries to unfold the intricate relationship between digitization, technostress, formalization, and red tape within public administration. Through the lens of appraisal-theory the inducement of technostress by ICT usage is examined and interaction and mediation relationships of red tape and formalization are analyzed. The study uses cross-sectional data from 334 German public employees from an online survey conducted in June 2023. Results suggest an increasing occurrence of technostressors with increased ICT usage, amplified by red tape induced compliance burden. Yet, techno-complexity was reported lower for an environment with rules that lack functionality but high ICT usage and compliance burden.

Jakob Kühler

Abstract: Digital transformation in its various facets is a global topic and the subject of a rapidly increasing number of articles finding entrance into many sub-disciplines of public management (Gil-Garcia et al., 2018). Yet it remains a fuzzy term that is claimed to have ubiquitous implications for the way administrations deliver services and function internally (Mergel et al., 2019). A wide variety of technological trends and innovation buzzwords are subsumed under the digital terminology (such as machine learning, blockchain in infrastructure, robotic process automation) and thereby steadily increasing its complexity (Breaugh et al., 2023). "To become more digital" has become a recurring mantra. However, it remains open to how this mantra is perceived as by actors in local governments and how they make sense of it. We need to understand what the actors understand by digital transformation and - even more importantly - what they do not. In this sense, it is of central interest for digitization research to analyze these processes of sensemaking that materialize in the form of narratives for digital transformation and that prevail within organizations. Importantly, these processes of sensemaking do not occur in a vacuum, but are influenced by broader macro-societal templates, such as institutional logics. Consequently, this article first raises the question of what these narratives about digital transformation are and how their construction is influenced by actors' attachment to the institutional logics that shape them.

Daniela Großmann

Abstract: tba