Success through flexible working? Public administration in the coronavirus crisis

The world of work in German administrations has been undergoing the digital transformation for years – and the COVID19 pandemic is now working as a fuel for the challenges we face.

In a study conducted by German administrations at municipal, state and federal level, we identified together with PwC obstacles to flexible working in the public sector. To this end, interviews were hold in selected administrations and their staff are surveyed online on a larger scale. In this context, the survey of staff aims to examine the framework conditions for successful mobile work and the personal challenges facing the actors involved. Based on this, recommendations for action were developed that can make flexible working more successful for all stakeholders.

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PwC-/UP-study 2021: „Public Administration working from home“

Public administration agrees on this – hybrid working models are necessary and possible. You can find the results and recommendations for action in detail on the pages of PwC Deutschland.

"Homeoffice in public administration. Experiences, limitations and opportunities for the future of public administration"

Dowload the study here.

From this project several publications have been originated which – together with all important data and information – can be accessed freely on the Open Science Platform (OSF).

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Public Administration during Lockdown: Empirical findings

The article in the German journal “Verwaltung und Management” presents in detail the results of the qualitative interviews and online survey on how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

The picture shows apps on a mobile phone.

WhatsApp instead of team meetings?

This article in the German journal “Innovative Verwaltung” shows how German administrations handled teleworking during the pandemic and the challenges they face.

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Resilience through Digitalisation? Article in PMR

An open-access study on crisis resilience in government shows that the transition to home office was less challenging than expected. The results have been published in Public Management Review.

Publications:

  1. Siegel, John; Fischer, Caroline; Drathschmidt, Nicolas; Gelep, Adrian; Kralinski, Thomas. 2020. Verwaltung im Lockdown. In: VM Verwaltung und Management 26(6). pp. 279–287. Open Access-Post-Print DOI
  2. Kralinski, Thomas; Gelep, Adrian; Siegel, John. 2021. Whatsapp statt Dienstberatung? In: Innovative Verwaltung. 43(4). pp. 16–18. PDF
  3. Gelep, Adrian; Kralinski, Thomas; Siegel, John et al. 2021. Die Verwaltung im Homeoffice. Erfahrungen, Grenzen und Chancen für die Zukunft der Verwaltung. Berlin: PwC. PDF
  4. Fischer, Caroline; Siegel, John; Proeller, Isabella; Drathschmidt, Nicolas. 2022. Resilience through digitalisation: How individual and organisational resources affect public employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. In: Public Management Review. DOI